Memorial hall honors Rape of Nanking author

A memorial hall in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, dedicated to Iris Chang, the author of The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, will open to the public at the end of the year, according to the local government.

Chang's book, published in 1997, chronicles the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45). It became a best-seller and introduced the Nanking Massacre, which began near the end of 1937 and lasted for months, to a wide audience of Western readers.

Chang took her own life in 2004, aged 36. She had been battling with depression. Huai'an, her ancestral home, determined to build a memorial hall in honor of her contribution to the preservation of history.