Facts into Fiction – One
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
By Ellis Goodman
Early this year, a book about the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of World War II by Charles Pellegrino – “The Last Train From Hiroshima” – won excellent reviews, including a description in The New York Times – as being a “gleaming, popular, war time history.” The acclaimed novel prompted “Avatar” Director, James Cameron, to option it for a possible movie.
The book included testimony from a source – Joseph Fuoco – who claimed to be a last-minute replacement on an observation plane which accompanied the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in August, 1945. However, it turned out that Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at the age of 84, was an imposter discredited by scientists, historians, veterans, and the family of the actual flight engineer who was with the crew.
The plot thickened when it appeared that, even though Mr. Pelligrino admitted his mistake, his publisher, Henry Holt & Company, had additional questions about other characters quoted in the book, and whether Mr. Pellegrino’s Doctorate was legitimate. The President of Henry Holt announced that the book would be withdrawn and stated, “Without the confidence that we can stand behind the work in its entirety, we cannot continue to sell this product to our customers.”
Pellegrino fought back, saying he had used pseudonyms to protect certain of his characters’ identities, but had forgotten to acknowledge that in his book. As to his Doctorate – a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand – he subsequently stated his degree had been revoked years ago in a dispute, but had later been reinstated. The University said they had no record of his PhD.
This whole issue is interesting because it follows the plagiarism claim against the young German author, Helene Hegemann, nominated for an award at the Leipzig Book Fair, who acknowledged that she had used other people’s work, but saw nothing wrong in doing that. It is reasonable to expect that the content of memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies would be written from a particular and sometimes personal point of view. Readers may dispute, from their own knowledge, some of the content of such works, and it is not uncommon and perhaps even expected that memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies will be slanted by the writer to present the best face to the audience. However, there is a difference between this massaging of the facts, to fictionalizing events or not doing adequate research to make sure that facts are correct before passing them off as a legitimate piece of history.
In this fast moving age of instant information, it is a challenge to maintain an ethical balance when writing non-fiction which the reader is entitled to believe is an accurate description of actual events of the day. But if publishers or the media in general do not maintain vigilance and the highest standards, the public is in danger of being manipulated through false information.
Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com
