New Guinea - Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan, en route to Howland Island, 2 July 1937

[Richard]

The "Japanese Capture" theories ( there are several versions of how it happened) are interesting. I ordinally never gave them much credence until I actually started to look into them. There are LOTS of eye witnesses, US Army and Marine observations and even Admiral Nimitz believe the Japanese had held them. But the physical evidence is lacking.

Potential physical evidence would be: the airplane, Amelia's briefcase, photos of them taken after 2 July 1937, official reports or documents, clothing, or bodies. While all of that has been alleged to have been seen by various witnesses, none seems to exist today.

Unfortunately, the only evidence is a lot of witness testimony about it.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

A number of Marshall Islanders, and residents of the Marianas Island of Saipan in the 1930's and 40's have related stories and eyewitness testimony regarding the 1937 Japanese military capture and imprisonment of two white "pilots"; a man and a woman.

Although the various accounts might differ slightly, the basic facts are fairly consistent.

Considered as a whole, a scenario emerges in which Amelia Earhart and her Navigator, Fred Noonan, either land or ditch the plane on or alongside Barre Island of Mili Atoll. Fred sustains a head and knee injury.

They are picked up by a small fishing boat, and transferred to a larger Japanese ship, Koshu. Another boat towing a barge recovers the aircraft and all are transported to Jaluit Island. A Marshallese medic, Amaron Billimon, treats Fred's injuries aboard Koshu.

Koshu departs Jaluit for Kwajalin and then to Truk with Amelia and Fred aboard. From Truk, they are flown In a large two engine Japanese Navy seaplane to Saipan. The plane has a water landing mishap in the harbor, which causes some eyewitnesses who see Amelia and Fred being brought ashore, to think that they were the pilots of the seaplane.

Different eyewitness accounts state that Fred and Amelia (although their names are not known at the time to them) are held at a two story hotel in Garipan and/or at a small jail in that capital city where they are interrogated as "spies". Gregorio Sablan, a Saipanese civilian who speaks Japanese and English (besides his native Chamorran language) is present.

Stories of their eventual fates differ. Some say they were executed. Others say Fred was killed and Amelia died of illness. Others state that they both were held for years and then flown to Japan during World War II.

A number of US soldiers and Marines claimed to have seen Amelia's Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft in a Japanese hangar at Aslito Field, Saipan - and that it was removed from the hangar and intentionally destroyed by burning on the ramp or runway. This occurred days after Saipan was taken by the US military in July 1944.

Other Marines have sworn that about that same time (July 1944) they were detailed to disenterr bones from a Saipan cemetery, and were led to believe they were the graves of Fred and Amelia. What became of them is not known.

A number of books and articles have been written supporting this basic scenario.

I am still confused with what is the "basic scenario".... your post seems to represent a number of scenarios.

Do you find any one particular "thing" that more or less confirms their presence.....

I know I am stretching facts and claims here....

 

[Richard]

I am still confused with what is the "basic scenario".... your post seems to represent a number of scenarios.

Do you find any one particular "thing" that more or less confirms their presence.....

I know I am stretching facts and claims here....

The "scenario" that I refer to in the post you quoted would be that Amelia and Fred - after failing to find their destination of Howland Island - turned to the west and made an emergency landing or ditching at Barre Island in Mille/Mili Atoll which is in the Marshall Islands (then under Japanese control).

Surviving that, they were captured by the Japanese and transported by ship and aircraft to Japanese Pacific headquarters on Saipan and held as spies.

This is supported by eyewitness testimony of a large number of Islanders and of US servicemen.

It should be said that there are certainly folks with different views and alternate theories - such as "crashed and sank" or "landed elsewhere". And there are official denials by Japanese and US government agencies regarding requested records.

A number of books have detailed the story in far more specifics than I have done in my few posts. Probably the first to do so was Fred Goerner's "The Search For Amelia Earhart " (1966). This was followed by the works of several other researchers who visited the Pacific Islands mentioned and interviewed living witnesses.

Mike Campbell does a great job of discussing those books and ideas in his 2016 book "Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last".

 

[Sweetluv]

What was the very last transmission that Ameila gave?
Were any of these execution/grave areas reported by witnesses who claim they were captured ever excavated?

 

[Richard]

What was the very last transmission that Ameila gave?
Were any of these execution/grave areas reported by witnesses who claim they were captured ever excavated?

Good questions, however answers are not simple.

Amelia's last "official" transmission would be what the Itasca radio log records as:
WE ARE ON THE LINE 157 - 337, WILL REPEAT THIS MESSAGE ON 6210 KCS. WAIT LISTENING ON 6210 KCS. ( one minute pause) WE ARE RUNNING ON LINE NORTH AND SOUTH.

Amelia was essentially broadcasting "in the blind" because two way communication with the USCG Cutter Itasca was never established. Itasca had been receiving her transmissions for about 3 hours prior to her last one quoted above.

None of Itasca's transmissions to Amelia appear to have been heard or acknowledged.

However, other stations reported picking up other later signals which some thought to have been made by Amelia - even after her plane would no longer have been flying.

As to grave excavations, one has to consider that the US could not get into Saipan until June 1944 when a massive amphibious assault was begun to take the island from Japanese forces. Much of the place was reduced to rubble, and there were many casualties on both sides. Efforts to recover and identify bodies began immediately and continued for weeks and months afterward.

It is said that a small detail of Marines were tasked, in July 1944, with locating and exhuming graves thought to hold the bones of Amelia and Fred, however no official report can be found to back this up.

It wasn't until the 1960's that writers and researchers attempted to locate possible gravesites, with some digging, but no positive results.

 

[Sweetluv]

@Richard..you seem very knowledgeable on Ameila and Fred's disappearance. Curious to know if you mind sharing your opinion on what occurred (?)

 

[Sweetluv]

I personally go back and forth between being captured, killed, and plane destroyed to crashing into the ocean..though I do tend to wonder if they crashed, why hasn't any personal items or parts of the plane ever recovered?
Also, a wide search was done at the time.
Were they so off course that the search area was incorrect?

 

[Richard]

I personally go back and forth between being captured, killed, and plane destroyed to crashing into the ocean..though I do tend to wonder if they crashed, why hasn't any personal items or parts of the plane ever recovered?
Also, a wide search was done at the time.
Were they so off course that the search area was incorrect?

Amelia Earhart's disappearance is considered one of history's mysteries precisely because there are so many questions about it.

One has to put it in the context of the times of 1937. Although Japan was not at war with the US at the time, they did have plans to create a large Pacific empire - much of it being in the "Mandated Islands".

These were islands which had been claimed/owned by Germany prior to 1914. When Germany lost World War One to the United States, and other allies, the Treaty of Versailles allowed Japan (one of those victorious allies) to administer the Mandates.

Japan began to fortify the islands, building air strips, harbors, radio stations, etc. - all under the pretext of providing services to the island people. In reality, the island people were used as slave labor by the Japanese.

Japan was very paranoid about anyone entering "their" area.

The large scale search for Amelia, Fred, and their plane was conducted by carrier based Navy planes. Much of the area searched was around Howland Island, other islands to the south of it, and the Gilberts to the west.

Japan offered to assist in the search, and later reported falsely that they had done a thorough search with nothing found. In fact, the Japanese ships supposedly involved in their "search" were in port in Japan.

 

[Richard]

Three very basic skills or priorities are required to successfully fly an aircraft from one place to another:
Aviation
Navigation
Communication

A pilot's order of priority in the event of any air emergency is to Aviate, Navigate, and Communicate.

Nobody could doubt Amelia's ability to handle an air plane. She was one of the most skilled, experienced, and accomplished aviators of the era. That very plane had previously ground looped on take off in Hawaii, and Amelia crash landed it safely with repairable damage and no injuries to the crew.

Fred Noonan was one of the best navigators around. He had a lot of experience flying as a long range celestial navigator over the Pacific in Pan AM Clippers. That said, any number of factors might have caused errors which placed the Electra left or right of course at their Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for Howland Island.

Communications and radio procedures for the entire flight were a comedy of errors and mistakes - a real nightmare. No solid com plan was established and known to all parties. Equipment was left behind, Amelia was not knowledgeable of radio/antenna equipment capabilities, and standard radio procedures were not followed. At no time did she make proper position reports.

Barring a catastrophic airborne explosion (of which there is no evidence) the plane continued to be flyable after Amelia's last radio transmission.

Faced with the fact that they could not find Howland or the Itasca, and had no two way communication, Amelia was forced to seek an alternate destination. In her mind, the most likely direction would be to turn to the west and look for an island or attol in the Gilberts where they would have flown over earlier.

If they were significantly north of course at ETA Howland, taking a new course west would have brought them over the Marshall Islands.

As an experienced aviator, Amelia would have chosen a place to land or ditch safely. Perhaps making a few trial approaches if fuel allowed to check for any obstacles. In a worst case scenario with the engines stopping for lack of fuel, she could have glided down for a dead stick landing/ditching.

 

[Richard]

This 2 July will mark 88 years missing.

 

[PrairieWind]

This 2 July will mark 88 years missing.

I'm actually just re-reading an Earhart book I have. It is very good. It is "Amelia Earhart: The Final Story."

 

[Richard]

Today marks the 88 year anniversary of the date Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan went missing.

 

[cenazoic]

Not specifically about the disappearance, but a new biography of Amelia is coming out 15 July:

The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro.

 

[Richard]

Amelia Earhart with Fred Noonan in Natal, Brazil, in June 1937, during their attempted round the world flight.

 

[Richard]

If there's one woman from history whose story still has the power to captivate people, it's Amelia Earhart. She made leaps and bounds in the world of aviation, setting many records and becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean by herself. However, her shocking disappearance in 1937 ignited one of the greatest mysteries of all time...

Here is a recent video about Amelia and her accomplishments. It mentions two theories about her end: One was the "Crashed and Sank" theory and the other that she landed on Gardiner Island and starved to death. NOT mentioned is the theory that she was captured by the Japanese and died while imprisoned by them.

LINK:

MSN

 

[Richard]

As mentioned above, a theory not discussed in the video is the possibility that Amelia and Fred were captured by the Japanese in the Marshall Islands, and their capture kept secret from United States officials. Japan agreed to search the area around Jaluit island for the fliers and their aircraft, but reported finding nothing.


The Japanese navy’s 2,080-ton survey ship Koshu is was reported by the Japanese as having been involved in the search for Amelia Earhart but that nothing was found. It is believed by some researchers that the Koshu picked up Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan from their crash landing near Mili’s Barre Island, or at Jaluit Island, where it loaded the Earhart Electra onto its stern for transportation to Saipan.

 

[Richard]

Bilimon Amaron was a Japanese medical corpsman on Jaluit island who stated that he was called to the ship Koshu in Jaluit harbor along with the health services commander in 1937 to treat a white man with blue eyes. The American had sustained head and knee injuries in the crash of his aircraft, piloted by a white woman. Their silver twin-engine aircraft was seen by Amaran on the fantail of the ship, missing one wing.

Source:
Amelia Earhart: The Final Story (1985) by Vincent V. Loomis

 

[sds71]

POTUS says he is ordering his administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, "and everything else about her"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971679821207060831

 

[PrairieWind]

POTUS says he is ordering his administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, "and everything else about her"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971679821207060831

That could be interesting. It really relates to what information was gathered by the US Navy/Marines and Army at the end of the war, what they found and learned from captured Japanese and from the locals.