Last Train from Hiroshima
In January 2010, Henry Holt published Pellegrino's
Last Train from Hiroshima, a look at the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima from the vantage of survivors.
The
New York Times initially praised the book as "sober and authoritative" and as a "firm and compelling synthesis of earlier memoirs and archival material". However, a month later the
New York Times reported on allegedly false historical data found in Pellegrino's book. As the
New York Times stated, Pelligrino's book:
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 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."
In addition to the issues covered by
The New York Times, veterans of the 509th Operations Group, the Air Force unit which dropped the atomic bombs, issued a detailed list of substantive problems with many of the book's claims about the bomb and the Air Force personnel involved.
The
New York Times added, "Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. . . . [H]e said he would rewrite sections of the book for paperback and foreign editions." Despite Pellegrino's claim in
The New York Times that he had been "duped" by Fuoco, further investigation revealed that Pellegrino had repeatedly mentioned one of the book's most disputed claims (a supposed fatal accident at Tinian Island on 4 August 1945)
before Mr. Fuoco had allegedly confided it for him.
On 1 March 2010, Henry Holt announced that it had halted publication of
Last Train from Hiroshima as more questions arose about the veracity of the material. In particular, doubts arose about the existence of two westerners allegedly present in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. The
New York Times also reported, "[T]he publisher also had questions about Mr. Pellegrino’s doctorate," noting, "Mr. Pellegrino said that the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand . . . had stripped him of his Ph.D. because of a disagreement over evolutionary theory. . . . But Barbara Marriott, the employment relations manager for Victoria said in an e-mail message that Mr. Pellegrino did not have a Ph.D. from the university. She said the university was investigating the situation." Days later the University stated that it had not issued a doctorate to Pellegrino.
Doctoral degree
Doubts about Pellegrino's doctoral degree were initially investigated by a blogger. When asked, Pellegrino's purported university responded to the blogger, "Although [Pellegrino] did do some PhD study, we can’t find any record of him actually completing or graduating." Working in collaboration with an Air Force veterans organization, the blogger then contacted a host of media organizations with the information. After this initial revelation, university spokespersons reiterated to the Associated Press, The Weekly Standard, and
The New York Times that Mr. Pellegrino did not have a Ph.D. from Victoria University.
In response, Mr. Pellegrino stated that the university had "stripped him of his Ph.D. because of a disagreement over evolutionary theory". The university told
The New York Times and other news outlets that they were conducting an investigation into the matter. On 5 March,
The New York Times stated:
In an e-mailed statement, Professor Pat Walsh, vice chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington, confirmed that Mr. Pellegrino had been a Ph.D. student in the 1980s.
“He submitted a thesis which in the unanimous opinion of the examiners was not of a sufficient standard for a Ph.D. to be awarded,” Mr. Walsh said. “Following complaints from Pellegrino, an investigation was carried out by the University. In 1986, Pellegrino appealed to Her Majesty the Queen. The case was then considered by the Governor-General who disallowed the appeal. Accordingly, Pellegrino was never awarded a Ph.D. from Victoria and therefore could not have had it stripped from him or reinstated at a later date.”
