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Friday, November 12, 2004

Its always interesting to see how life unfolds.

Sometime ago, maybe about 2 years, I discovered the books by the author of Iris Chang. Her works delt with matters directly related to the Chinese people in some way. She wrote about famous Chinese scientists, the lifestyle of Chinese immigrants, etc. All her books were well known in the Asian literature world. Particulary famous was her book The Rape of Nanking, which told about the the brutal attack on a single Chinese city by Japanese soldiers where hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Its called "the rape of" because thats what was most prevalent during the attack. Countless numbers of rape incidents took place. In fact, my grandfather's own sister was a victim of rape by Japanese soldier, while pregnant, and was afterwards killed. The event in history is also known by others as "the Forgotten Holocaust" because not a particulary large number of people know about it.

Eventually, I read all of Chang's books. Last year, I even went to a book signing that she was at in a small bookstore in La Jolla and got her autograph on one of her books I owned.

Today I found a small article in the back of yesterday's Union Tribune which stated that she had commited suicide in her car with a gun after coming out of a hospital for depression. She wrote a note asking her family to remember her as the person she used to be before she fell ill to depression. Her family consisted of a husband and a 2 year old son.

Now I sit here with the book that she had signed in front of me, turned to the cover page with her signature on it. Makes you think, doesnt it?

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