James Cameron

World War II veterans are speaking out against movie director James Cameron for his support of Charles Pellegrino and his book The Last Train from Hiroshima, “a discredited history of the atomic bombing of Japan that the director has optioned for a possible film,” reports an Associated Press wire story.

The report says members of the 509th Composite Group, the military unit that conducted the 1945 atom bomb attack on Hiroshima, released a statement saying that many aspects of the book are “complete fiction and cause great damage to true history.” They’re backed up by numerous historians who have verified numerous factual errors in the book. Pellegrino has been unable to prove that some of his sources even exist.

So the group of verterans and their families was annoyed at Cameron’s statements supporting Pellegrino, such as “All I know is that Charlie would not fabricate, so there must be a reason for the misunderstanding.” Cameron also reiterated that he planned to make a movie out of the book.

In its statement, the 509th said,

… it suspects that Mr. Cameron did not understand the extent of the misrepresentations in Pellegrino’s Hiroshima book ….

… However, we stand by our offer to help Mr. Cameron to make an historically accurate film about these important events. But we strongly caution that many things in the Pellegrino book are complete fiction and cause great damage to true history.

Cameron has refused to comment publicly, but says he will contact the 509th.