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November 11, 2004
Activist Author Iris Chang Found Dead
I was shocked to read via SFGate that author Iris Chang - perhaps most well-known for her powerfully emotional book The Rape of Nanking - was found dead Tuesday. I have talked about Chang and her documentary on war crimes committed by the Japanese against the Chinese in an earlier weblog entry.
I still remember flipping through a copy of The Rape of Nanking at Border's bookstore and feeling outraged at the atrocities committed against the tens of thousands of innocent and helpless women and children in Nanking. What kind of monsters would be able to follow through with those actions? You'd really have to see the pictures in the book to understand what I'm talking about. I'll admit that those images were so repulsive that they stick in my mind to this day. In fact, I wish I never saw them. Honestly, those images made the photographs from Abu Ghraib look like minor offenses - not that I am not also horrified at the treatment of the prisoners there.
Such is the furious passion that Iris Chang was able to evoke in her readers. Chang's death is especially sad because Asian Americans are still considered the passive race in this country. There are very few Asian Americans with the talent to put history into words, and are willing to spend time and energy advocating for justice. Clearly this needs to change.
Posted by Kathy at November 11, 2004 08:04 PM