Book may contain fabricated stories by wannabe Hiroshima bombing crew member
The New York Times reports on a scandal involving a man who seems to have falsely claimed that he participated in the mission to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima:
“The Last Train from Hiroshima,” published in January by Henry Holt, also claims to reveal a secret accident with the atom bomb that killed one American and irradiated others and greatly reduced the weapon’s destructive power.
There is just one problem. That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay.
But Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at age 84 and lived in Westbury, N.Y., never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor.
[...]
“This book is a Toyota,” said Robert S. Norris, the author of “Racing for the Bomb” and an atomic historian. “The publisher should recall it, issue an apology and fix the parts that endanger the historical record.”
Cheap shots at Japanese car makers aside, it does appear that the book may contain serious factual errors.
Related video: James Cameron is planning to make this book into a movie. Here is a clip about how he met with an A-bomb survivor back in November:
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