NEW YORK (AP) — An organisation of World War II veterans is unhappy with James Cameron's support for a discredited book about the atomic bombing of Japan that the director has optioned for a possible film.

Members of the 509th Composite Group, which consists of veterans and relatives of those who carried out the 1945 attacks, said in a statement on Wednesday that many aspects of Charles Pellegrino's "The Last Train from Hiroshima" are "complete fiction and cause great damage to true history."

Henry Holt and Company, responding to questions raised by The Associated Press, announced on Monday that it had ceased publication of the book. But Cameron, whose "Avatar" has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, defended Pellegrino in an e-mail sent on Tuesday to the AP.