More on Iris Chang

As mentioned in the backblogs by Naomi Hirahara, the San Francisco Chronicle has further details on the tragic suicide of Iris Chang, who appears to have been deeply affected by her current project looking at current US prisoners of war:

Ignatius Ding, an activist who worked with Chang for several years in

seeking to have Japan acknowledge and apology for atrocities it committed

during World War II, said Chang’s current project videotaping the former U.S.

prisoners of war had been emotionally taxing for her.

“She was doing research recently in Kentucky and ran into some problem,”

he said. “She got really upset, and she flew home.” Chang lived in San Jose

with her husband, Brett Douglas.

Ding, who heads the Cupertino-based Global Alliance for Preserving the

History of World War II in Asia, said he did not know what kind of problem

Chang might have encountered or whether it was a factor in her death.

He noted that she “took things to heart” and usually became emotionally

involved in the tragic stories she wrote about.

Just reading further details saddens me more. It sounds like the world needed more women like her, not fewer.