An Intimate, Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Author of 'The Rape of Nanking'

The Woman Who Could Not Forget, it turns out, has a mother who could not, either.

In the opening pages of her new book, Ying-Ying Chang describes the heart-stopping moment in which her son-in-law calls with the news that his wife has gone missing from their San Jose townhouse sometime during the night.

It doesn’t matter that Chang’s daughter is a 36-year-old adult. Or that she is a beautiful, famous, best-selling author. Ying-Ying Chang is a mother, frantic with the knowledge that her daughter left behind a suicide note.

When Iris Chang died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on a dark, lightly traveled road near Los Gatos on November 9, 2004, shock waves of disbelief rippled around the globe, from Cupertino to Princeton to Nanjing, China. The San Jose writer, whose 1997 book, “The Rape of Nanking,” sold nearly half a million copies and stayed on the New York Times best seller list for 13 weeks, was internationally known. More than 600 people turned out for her funeral at the in Los Altos, just 10 days later. Eulogists, like writer James Bradley, spoke of the tragedy of a brilliant life cut short. Chang was working on her fourth book about the Bataan Death March.

Now Ying-Ying Chang has written a book about her intensely private daughter, one whom the public only glimpsed, The Woman Who Could Not Forget.

On Sunday, the public will have a chance to hear for themselves. Ying-Ying Chang will make her first Bay Area book appearance Sunday in Millbrae at the World Journal Activity Center.

The book is an intimate look that only her family could tell, full of pictures and excerpts of letters and emails Iris Chang exchanged with her mother and her father, Shau-Jin, over the crucial years. Those exchanges describe the challenges in researching Nanking and the people she met, the obstacles, her moments of elation, exhaustion, inspiration. The discovery of the diary of John Rabe, the "Good Nazi" who created the Nanking Safety Zone, is in here. Ying-Ying Chang said she wrote the book so people could understand the depth of her daughter’s dedication and bedrock belief that one person could make a difference.

"I quote from her 'Power of One' speech that she made in 1998 to her high school," Chang said. That came after her book went from unknown to blockbuster, primarily on an extraordinary grassroots movement by those who felt the story of the Imperial Japanese Army's acts in China and Asia had been buried for too long.

"One person can make an enormous difference in the world," Iris Chang had told that class, just a dozen years younger than herself. "One person—actually one IDEA—can start a war, or end one, or subvert an entire power structure."

There is a forward by Cupertino resident Ignatius Ding, who became part of the key network that Iris Chang relied on for her contacts and that built the word-of-mouth sales of The Rape of Nanking. There is an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Richard Rhodes, and a book jacket endorsement by Jim Lehrer of PBS' NewsHour.

 Iris Chang's extensive research documents and papers are housed at the , where there is also a bronze bust of her in the Hoover Archives Reading Room. Currently, there is a small display of her papers, along with her mother's new book, that is near the major exhibit of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China () in the Herbert Hoover Memorial Exhibit Pavillion.

It took Ying-Ying Chang 1½ years to climb out of her numbing grief to form the Iris Chang Memorial Fund, which runs an essay contest, and finally to write a book about her daughter. The book was for her grandson, Christopher, who was only 2 when his mother died. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the difficulties Iris Chang faced getting The Rape of Nanking published, the help she received from members of the Chinese-American community and how she encouraged other writers to pursue their passion. It was also to set the record straight over all the speculation of her mental health, and to warn against the side effects of anti-psychotic drugs her daughter had been prescribed. The title of Ying-Ying Chang's book had been the working title of a 2007 docudrama that became, Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking.

That her book got published was a feat of pure will on Ying-Ying Chang's part. 

It did not matter that the Harvard-trained biochemist was writing in her second  language, nor that her forté was science, not prose.

It didn’t matter that she didn’t have a book agent or that her queries to them went nowhere. Ying-Ying Chang’s unwavering vision was that the widest possible audience would know the daughter she knew—through this book.

“In some way, I follow her conviction,” Chang said. “It’s not a question of whether I can do it or not. I had to try.”

Indeed, Chang said, even six years after Iris’ death, her daughter's writings have become a prod and an inspiration to her in her own life. She wonders aloud at the transition, through her daughter's short life, of their relationship: From mother-daughter, to friend, to finally, posthumously through her writings, like a mentor to her, she said.

"Iris gives me so much," Chang said. "She inspired me."

The book signing will be:

Sunday, 2-4 p.m.

World Journal Activity Center

201 Adrian Rd.

Millbrae

Tel:  650-259-2063