Newark: The family of Iris Chang, who chronicled the Japanese occupation of China and the history of Chinese immigrants in the USA, thinks her suicide could have been averted if mental illness didn’t have such a strong stigma in the Asian-American community. Making their first public comments since the 36-year-old best-selling author died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in November, Chang’s parents and brother spoke at a fundraiser for a nonprofit that works to raise mental health awareness among Chinese-Americans. They described Chang’s shame after she suffered a breakdown and was diagnosed with “brief reactive psychosis” and possibly bipolar disorder. They said she asked them not to reveal her condition, and resisted taking medication. In 1997, Chang published The Rape of Nanking, which described the rape, torture and killing of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former Chinese capital during the late 1930s. In 2003, she followed up with The Chinese in America.— AP