Iris Chang was born in China, but emigrated to the United States with her parents while she was still a child. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her parents were professors, and received a masters degree from Johns Hopkins University. She is a freelance writer who regularly works with The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and the Associated Press Chang's books include Thread of the Silkworm and The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. The Rape of Nanking, in particular, involved extensive research both in the United States and abroad. It recounts the Japanese rape and slaughter of the captive population of Nanking, China, in… December, 1937 and the early part of 1938. Through the book and her lectures on the subject, Chang has been instrumental in helping the world remember the atrocities of Nanking.