LOS ANGELES - Iris Chang, world-renowned Chinese-American author of "The Rape of Nanking," which exposed the brutal atrocities of the Japanese army in China during World War II, has committed suicide, US police said on November 11.

Chang, 36, was found dead November 9 in a car south of San Francisco in what police determined as a suicide, said Terrance Helm of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. She died from a single bullet to the head.

Police said Chang's husband reported her missing on November 8. "Our detectives determined it was a suicide," he said.

Her agent, Susan Rabiner, said Chang had suffered from "classical clinical depression" and had been hospitalized earlier this year. She said Chang left a note to her family asking that she be remembered as she was before her illness.

She lived in Sunnyvale, California. (Xinhua)