Chang

Oh, dear.

Prominent Chinese American author Iris Chang, whose international bestseller “The Rape of Nanking” resurrected the long-ignored atrocities by the Japanese military on Chinese civilians during World War II, died Nov. 9 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her car along a rural road south of Los Gatos, Calif.

I’ll confess that I don’t really care for “The Rape of Nanking” as a text; it is sloppy and often turgid. However, the book served to highlight a historical episode that was in danger of being forgotten in the West, and has sparked some decent scholarship.

It’s a sad moment.