Iris Chang, one of my best Chinese-American writers, passed away on 11 November, 2004. Shocked, I couldn't believe what I was reading from the newspaper yesterday. My hero decided to end her 36-year-old life by killing herself with a shotgun inside her car in San Jose... "Only if someone were there to talk to her..." I taught to myself.

She is the author of the best-selling history book, THE RAPING OF NANKING, which describes the painful facts of the cruelty of the Japanese military to the Nan king people in China. I bought a Chinese copy of that book from a bookstore in Hong Kong, right after the Chinese version was released. Revolutionary indeed, her book not merely reminds the Chinese people of the undeniable history once happened in our land, but it also let a lot of the new generation of the Japanese and the Americans understand what actually happened during WWII. Holocaust of the Jewish was a lesson-learned by the world; so was the Raping of Nan king.

News reporter claimed that her death was a result of her depression and breakdown, due to the fact that her writing topics of her books were mostly depressing historical facts and stories. Once to her friend, Iris Chang questioned the reasons behind the darkness and cruelty of mankind. Reading this piece of information, I sighed, as I totally understood what she meant and felt. "Why?" I asked myself a lot of times, when tragedies happened right before my eyes.

There will never be an answer to this question.