Author found shot in her car

Associated Press, Los Gatos Friday November 12, 2004
The Guardian Iris Chang, a best-selling author who chronicled the Japanese occupation of China and the history of Chinese immigrants in the United States, has been found dead in her car with a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said. She was 36.
Chang, who won critical acclaim for her books The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America, was found on Highway 17 just south of Los Gatos.
The official cause of death has not been released, but investigators concluded that she shot herself in the head. She lived in San Jose with her husband and two-year-old son.
Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Chang worked briefly as a reporter before leaving daily journalism to pursue her own writing.
In 1997 she published the international bestseller The Rape of Nanking, which described the rape, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former Chinese capital during the 1930s.
She suffered a breakdown during a recent trip researching a book, her former editor and agent, Susan Rabiner, said.
Chang continued to suffer from depression after she was released from hospital.
AP, Los Gatos