Memorial park built to honor Chinese-American writer

The city of San Jose, California has built a memorial park named for Iris Chang to honor the Chinese-American writer. Chang was a Journalist, author and political activist who was born in Princeton, New Jersey and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. She is best known for her best-selling "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" published in 1997.

A visitor presents a flower bouquet in front of a tablet inscribed with an introduction of Iris Chang at a memorial park named after the late Chinese-American writer in San Jose, California, the United States, Nov. 9, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

The book was motivated in part by her grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. It documents atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and includes interviews with victims. More than 300,000 Chinese died in over 40 days of brutal killing by the Japanese army in the winter from 1937 to 1938. The book has helped the international community have a better understanding of the truth of the tragic history 82 years ago.

Iris Chang’s parents visited the bronze statue of their daughter. [Photo: VCG]

Iris committed suicide in 2004 due to depression. Her death hit the massacre survivor community in Nanjing hard. A bronze statue of Iris was built in 2005. In 2017, the Iris Chang Memorial Hall was built in Huai'an, China. People from all over the world pay tribute to this writer who committed herself to unveiling that period of brutal history so more people could understand Chinese history. The park opened to the public on November 9th to mark the 15th anniversary of Chang's death in northern San Jose.