Iris Chang

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Person.png Iris Chang   Amazon WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(Author, Journalist)
Iris Chang.jpg
BornMarch 28, 1968
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedNovember 9, 2004 (Age 36)
South of Los Gatos, California, U.S.
Cause of death
"suicide"
NationalityUS
Alma materJohns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ChildrenChristopher Chang
SpouseBretton Douglas
Victim of • Psychiatric medication?
• Japanese Deep State?
• CIA?
Chinese-American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. Suspicious "suicide".

Iris Shun-Ru Chang was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist.[1][2] She wrote the first book about the Nanking massacre that reached the mass market in the United States.[3]

Death

On November 9, 2004, Chang was found dead in her car by a Santa Clara Valley Water District employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos, California and west of State Route 17,[4] in Santa Clara County. Investigators concluded that Chang had shot herself through the mouth with a revolver. At the time of her death, she had been taking the medications Depakote and Risperdal to stabilize her mood; her parents believe that psychiatric drugs worsened her mental health.[5]

It was later discovered that she had left behind three suicide notes each dated November 8, 2004. "Statement of Iris Chang" stated:[6]

I promise to get up and get out of the house every morning. I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. I will follow the doctor's orders for medications. I promise not to hurt myself. I promise not to visit Web sites that talk about suicide.

The next note was a draft of the third:

When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute. It is far better that you remember me as I was—in my heyday as a best-selling author—than the wild-eyed wreck who returned from Louisville. ... Each breath is becoming difficult for me to take—the anxiety can be compared to drowning in an open sea. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. Please forgive me.

The third note included:

There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. Deep down I suspect that you may have more answers about this than I do. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me. Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. I sensed suddenly threats to my own life: an eerie feeling that I was being followed in the streets, the white van parked outside my house, damaged mail arriving at my P.O. Box. I believe my detention at Norton Hospital was the government's attempt to discredit me.


 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:The Mysterious Deaths of Ernest Hemingway and Iris Changarticle1 August 2011Darrell Hamamoto
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References