いよいよキャメロン監督が映画化に動くか

二重被爆: ヒロシマ ナガサキ 2つのキノコ雲の下を生き抜いて (2014/01/15) 稲塚 秀孝 商品詳細を見る

広島と長崎で二度も被爆してしまった山口彊さんを取り上げた本が出ました。ドキュメンタリー映画がベースにあるようです。前のブログで紹介させていただきましたが、山口彊さんが2010年にお亡くなりになった時に雑誌EconomistもObituaryを書いていました。

Tsutomu Yamaguchi
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a double nuclear survivor, died on January 4th, aged 93
Jan 14th 2010 | From the print edition

先ほどの本では山口さんからジェームズキャメロンに宛てた手紙も紹介されていました。読むと簡単な英語に思えるかもしれませんが、このレベルの手紙をスラッと書ければ、TOEICのSWでよいスコアになるのではないでしょうか。

Hello Mr. James Cameron.
My name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi.
I was exposed to atomic bombings twice m August
1945, first in Hiroshima, then in Nagasaki. I turned 93 this March.
All my adult life I have been plagued by health
problems caused by the atomic bombings.
I consider myself as a messenger given a life to
speak out to the world horror of nuclear bombs.
Last year I was interviewed by Mr. Pellegrino for his
book
"Last Train from Hiroshima”.
I heard that you are planning to make a movie about
atomic bombings. If there is anything I can do for
your project, I would be happy to do it.
I do not have many years left, but let me say this: I
would love to see your movie before I die.
I sincerely wish you good luck to your movie project

二重被爆者
山口 彊

The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back (John MacRae Books) (2010/01/19) Charles Pellegrino 商品詳細を見る

この手紙で登場する"Last Train from Hiroshima”という本は、証言の信憑性が疑わしい点があったりして出版停止になっていたようです。アマゾンにあった出版社からの発表です。

From Henry Holt and Company and Macmillan Books
It is with deep regret that Henry Holt and Company announces that we will no longer print, correct or ship copies of Charles Pellegrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima due to the discovery of a dishonest sources of information for the book.

It is easy to understand how even the most diligent author could be duped by a source, but we also understand that opens that book to very detailed scrutiny. The author of any work of non-fiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately, Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction.

Mr. Pellegrino has a long history in the publishing world, and we were very proud and honored to publish his history of such an important historical event. But without the confidence that we can stand behind the work in its entirety, we cannot continue to sell this product to our customers.

これに対して、キャメロン監督は擁護する声明を出しています。日本語に訳してくださっているサイトがありましたので、必要な方はリンク先をご覧ください。

March 3, 2010
I have worked with author/scientist/historian Charles Pellegrino on several projects including Titanic and Avatar. Charlie is a seeker of truth and he is already working to correct the errors that were included in his powerful book, The Last Train from Hiroshima. Charlie has introduced me personally to survivors of the bombings, and his diligence in interviewing these last connections with living history is beyond dispute. It would be a shame if the resulting book, which is a valuable historical resource, is dismissed or overtly blocked from wide dissemination due to inaccuracies resulting from a single unreliable source. Charlie’s faulty source clearly used elaborate deception to create a false account. 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. In this case he was clearly the victim of a convincing fraud. Charlie is currently doing all that is humanly possible to correct the resulting errors in his book, as any responsible writer would. I have wanted to do a film on the general subject of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings for years, and still intend to do so, although I do not currently have a shooting script and no decision has been made to proceed in the short term. My decision criteria for the project are not in the least influenced by the issue of a single flawed source out of the scores who contributed to Charlie’s book. When I do go forward with a film, I would be a fool to ignore the rich vein of eyewitness testimony, so painstakingly gathered, that exists in The Last Train from Hiroshima, and I will preserve my option on the book accordingly. The truth will prevail, and Charlie’s book, once corrected, will stand as an important and compelling account of one of the most important events of the 20th century.

James Cameron

偽ベートーベンやSTAP捏造疑惑の文脈からいくと「捏造けしからん」という観点から見てしまうのでしょう。確かに、詰めが甘かった部分があり著者ご本人も認めているようですが、やはり米国内では原爆投下に疑問を呈すような本は許せないという風潮が根強いことも一因としてあるではないかと思ってしまいます。

先ほどの本には、The Last Train from Hiroshimaの改訂版が近いうちに日本語版が先行して発売されるとありました。そうすれば、キャメロン監督による映画化に一歩近づくことになるかもしれませんね。