{"id":1812,"date":"2011-04-30T03:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-30T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2011-05-04T12:22:10","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T16:22:10","slug":"review-of-ying-ying-changs-memoir-the-woman-who-could-not-forget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2011\/04\/review-of-ying-ying-changs-memoir-the-woman-who-could-not-forget\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Ying-Ying Chang’s Memoir “The Woman Who Could Not Forget”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“To give a voice to the voiceless and to live her life for others” was the essence of Iris Chang’s life.\u00a0 In her beautiful memoir The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond “The Rape of Nanking,”<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong><\/em>Dr. Ying-Ying Chang, Iris’ mother, used her intimate knowledge of her daughter and extensive collections of letters, emails, and conversations between mother and daughter to reconstruct Iris’ short but courageous life and her tragic death.\u00a0 Iris’ book The Rape of Nanking:\u00a0 The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II<\/em><\/strong> almost single-handedly retrieved the Rape of Nanking from the forgotten attic of history and placed it in the forefront of international political discourse.\u00a0 She gave voice to the thousands and thousands of victims who either died forgotten or survived in shame and misery.\u00a0 She endured suffering in her own life and unjustified attacks from the ultra-right wing in Japan, as well as in the U.S.\u00a0 Ultimately she gave her own life so that others’ lives can be enriched.<\/p>\n

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Iris’ great accomplishment with her book The Rape of Nanking<\/em><\/strong> did not happen by accident or luck, but it was a culmination of talent, hard work, ambition, and passion.\u00a0 All of these characteristics she already exhibited at an early age.\u00a0 For example, Ying-Ying recollected in her memoir that in Iris’ third-grade project on “American Hero,” Iris chose to report on Clara Barton, who was a dedicated woman caring for wounded soldiers in the American Civil War and later became the founder of American Red Cross.\u00a0 Iris told her mother that she chose Clara Barton because of “her courage” and because “she cares.”\u00a0\u00a0 Iris started writing down her goals when she was only 15 years old. \u00a0 It was a turning point in her life, because to her astonishment, she had achieved all her goals.\u00a0 Iris told her mother that “it was as if the words themselves were possessed by magic.”\u00a0 Ying-Ying recalled that Iris was a voracious reader devouring books starting as a small child, and organized and edited her high school and college literary magazines and newspapers, as well as writing numerous essays and poems.<\/p>\n

Iris did meticulous research for her Nanking book, spending countless hours in various libraries and the National Archives in Washington, D.C., as well as libraries, museums, and archives in China.\u00a0 She also interviewed numerous survivors and eyewitnesses to gather first hand recollections. In spite of her detailed and careful research, she was attacked by various right-wing extremists and even from the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., Kunihiko Saito.\u00a0 On April 21, 1998 (less than half a year after The Rape of Nanking<\/strong><\/em> was published), the Japanese ambassador in a press conference criticized that her book “contain many extremely inaccurate descriptions and one-sided views.”\u00a0 On June 12, 1998, a group of Japanese “academics” in a conference in Tokyo accused Iris’ book of being misleading and exaggerating the Nanking Massacre.\u00a0 They blamed the killings on the Chinese themselves.\u00a0 How can any reasonable person deny the existence of the rape of Nanking and blamed the Chinese for the killings when there were so many well documented eyewitness oral, written, pictorial, and film archives recorded at that time by numerous foreign journalists, businessmen, missionaries, college professors\/administrators, and diplomats.<\/p>\n

Iris was so outraged and asked “Can you imagine what would happen if a German ambassador to the U.S. made a parallel statement about a book on the Holocaust?” \u00a0 Iris challenged Ambassador Saito to a public debate.\u00a0 After several months, this debate finally occurred on December 1, 1998 in the PBS MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour when Iris challenged and asked Ambassador Saito “Can the ambassador, himself, say today on national TV live that he personally is profoundly sorry for the rape of Nanking and other war crimes against China and the Japanese responsibility for it?”\u00a0 Ambassador Saito did not apologize and offered the often-used Japanese response that “… we do recognize that really unfortunate things happened, acts of violence were committed by members of the Japanese military.\u00a0 …”\u00a0 People watching the debate saw first hand the Japanese government’s reluctance to acknowledge and apologize for Japan’s past war crimes.<\/p>\n

The Japanese political and economic power structure also influenced developments in the U.S.\u00a0 Several months before The Rape of Nanking<\/strong><\/em> was to be published, the publisher Harper-Collins already sold the first serial rights of the book to Newsweek<\/em><\/strong> magazine, and an excerpt of the book was scheduled for the November 17, 1997 issue, coinciding with the appearance of the book in the bookstores.\u00a0 However, due to pressure from Japanese advertisers, Newsweek<\/em> at the last minute almost backed out of their contract.\u00a0 Because of the threat from Iris to expose Newsweek<\/em> caving in to Japanese advertisers’ pressure, Newsweek<\/em> finally published the excerpts\u00a0two weeks later on December 1, 1997.\u00a0 Ying-Ying and her husband Shau-Jin Chang did an analysis of the number of Japanese ads in Newsweek<\/em>.\u00a0 They found that on the average there were four-to-five Japanese ads per issue, but there was not a single Japanese ad in the December 1, 1997 issue and the number of Japanese ads was doubled in the November 17, 1997 issue!<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1998 the Japanese publisher Kashiwashobo acquired the rights to translate Iris’ book into Japanese.\u00a0 Under tremendous pressure, including death threats, from Japan’s right-wing ultranationalists, Kashiwashobo wanted basically to include a second volume to be published together that contained many fabricated events and accounts to refute Iris’ book.\u00a0 Iris told Kashiwashobo that she would not give permission to have a “supplementary volume” attached to the Japanese edition of her book, but if they want to publish a separate book about her book, that was none of her business, as long as it was not part of her book.\u00a0 The end result was that there was no Japanese edition of her book until another 10 years later.<\/p>\n

All these criticisms and controversies took a toll on Iris.\u00a0 She had to spend long hours through weeks and months to refute these unfounded criticisms, which sometimes were accompanied by threats to do her harm.\u00a0 Ying-Ying wrote that during many of Iris’ talks and book signings, many people came up to her to tell her of their own terrible experiences suffered under the hands of the Japanese during WWII.\u00a0 On the one hand it was satisfying that she found additional evidence to substantiate her book, but on the other hand she was mentally and emotionally drained after hearing all those horrible experiences.\u00a0 The long hours of hard work and sleep-deprived life, together with the constant reliving of the horrific tragedies of the Nanking Massacre, contributed to her health decline and the start of her depression.<\/p>\n

The passion, dedication, and vision shown in Iris’ work and life inspired many people.\u00a0 Among them was James Bradley, author of the best-selling books Flags of Our Fathers<\/em><\/strong> (which was also made into a movie by Clint Eastwood) and Flyboys:\u00a0 A True Story of Courage<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 In his eulogy at Iris’ funeral, Bradley directed his remarks to Iris’ two-year-old son Christopher and said “For two years I had tried to find a publisher.\u00a0 Twenty-seven publishers wrote me rejection letters.\u00a0 My spirits were low.\u00a0 Then one Sunday I felt a beacon of hope.\u00a0 A book about World War II was on the New York Times<\/em><\/strong> “Best Sellers” list.\u00a0 It was The Rape of Nanking<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 And it was on that day that I first saw those two beautiful words Iris Chang.\u00a0 Somehow I got up the courage to write a letter to your mother.\u00a0 She responded with a picture postcard encouraging me.\u00a0 The picture on the postcard was a photo of her.\u00a0 I hung the postcard photo of Iris on the wall in my study.\u00a0 Every day, as I wrote through my fears, I said to myself, “If she can do it, I can do it.”\u00a0 Flags of Our Fathers<\/strong><\/em> became a New York Times<\/em> #1 best seller.\u00a0 Twenty-seven publishers had said “no.”\u00a0 Your mother had said “Do it.””\u00a0 In the eulogy, Bradley went on to explain how Iris also provided pivotal help to him in his second best selling book Flyboys:\u00a0 A True Story of Courage<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

In a graduation speech she gave on June 5, 1998, at her alma mater University Laboratory High School, also known as Uni High, in Urbana, Illinois, Iris told her young audience “… First of all, please, please, PLEASE believe in THE POWER OF ONE.\u00a0 One person can make an enormous difference in the world.\u00a0 One person – actually, one IDEA – can start a war, or end one, or subvert an entire power structure.\u00a0 One discovery can cure a disease or spawn new technology to benefit or annihilate the human race.\u00a0 You are ONE individual and can change millions of lives.\u00a0 Think big.\u00a0 Do not limit your vision and do not EVER compromise your dreams or ideals. …”\u00a0 Iris was clearly one who believed and fulfilled THE POWER OF ONE.<\/p>\n

Ying-Ying was not only Iris’ mother, she was also her best friend.\u00a0 This memoir also described the love and pain of a mother, and the close relationship between mother and daughter.\u00a0 Many lessons learned in their lives are also worthy lessons for all of us.\u00a0 For example, one day when Ying-Ying went to pick up Iris at Iris’ baby-sitter’s house, she noticed that Iris liked to frown and did not smile as she had before.\u00a0 Ying-Ying asked the baby-sitter why.\u00a0 The baby-sitter said, “Have you smiled yourself lately?”\u00a0\u00a0 Then Ying-Ying realized that she and Shau-Jin had been troubled by a number of issues in their professional lives, and were unhappy at the time.\u00a0 The baby-sitter’s question enlightened Ying-Ying, and she practiced smiling in front of the mirror.\u00a0 What a difference that made.\u00a0 What Iris saw was a smile on her mother’s face, and she imitated it.<\/p>\n

This memoir also shed light on the cause of Iris’ suicide.\u00a0 Of course, no one can say for sure what caused Iris to take her own life.\u00a0 Ying-Ying made the following observations:<\/p>\n