Academic

HIROSHIMA BOOK A FABRICATION? A new book about the atomic destruction of Hiroshima has won critic?

By Glenn Reynolds

HIROSHIMA BOOK A FABRICATION?

A new book about the atomic destruction of Hiroshima has won critical acclaim with its heartbreaking portrayals of the bomb?s survivors and is set to be made into a movie by James Cameron. . . .

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. Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family?s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped.

Hey, don’t be too hard on him. Impostors are everywhere these days.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).