The Philippine Online Chronicles

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Avatar filmmaker James Cameron defended his long-time collaborator Charles Pellegrino against accusations that The Last Train from Hiroshima, Pellegrino’s non-fiction novel and Cameron’s supposedly future project about the Hiroshima bombing, contains false accounts and characters.

Questions were raised after Pellegrino, also an adviser for Cameron’s Oscar-nominated Avatar, admitted he was misled by book contributor Joseph Fuoco on being a replacement engineer on the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Cameron said a source “clearly used elaborate deception to create a false account.” He further defended Pellegrino by personally attesting to his integrity and said, "On our numerous projects together, I have known Charlie to be a diligent and thorough researcher who always does his best to cross reference testimony."

The publishers were said to have also questioned the existence of a certain Father Mattias and the Jesuit scholar who presided over his funeral. According to Worstpreviews.com, “Pellegrino's own background was also questioned. He sometimes refers to himself as Dr. Pellegrino, and his Web site lists him as receiving a Ph.D. in 1982 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. But in response to a query from the AP, the school said it had no proof that Pellegrino had such a degree.”

Associated Press reported that the halted publication of the book has not deterred Cameron’s plan of making a film version. It has even made the book more popular. Or rather, Cameron’s defense made the book more famous, according to another movie blog.

According to BBC,  Cameron still plans to go on with making a film about the Hiroshima bombing but without a shooting script and a short-term plan to do so.

Cameron’s actions drew criticism from the 509th Composite Group, a group of World War II veterans and their relatives. In a statement last March 3, the group said that many parts of the book The Last Train from Hiroshima are "complete fiction and cause great damage to true history."

A Filmschoolrejects.com blogger wrote that Cameron plans to meet with the 509th group. The group was said to be critical of the book since its release in January. The blogger added, “Will he make a 3D Hiroshima/Nagasaki film? That would be a terrible mistake. I think this is a story best told by someone else. That he stands by a book that’s been discredited doesn’t make a strong case for him as the right director to put this complex and terrible moment in history on film.”