Amelia Earhart mystery

[STEED]

Amelia Earhart: Does a blurry photo prove she died a Japanese prisoner?

A newly discovered photo suggests legendary US pilot Amelia Earhart might have died in Japanese custody - and not in a plane crash in the Pacific.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-40515754

Not sure.

[Jimbuna]

I doubt we'll ever find out 100% but my thinking is she died shortly after the crash (wherever that was) or died a castaway.

Despite the missing Japanese records I'd have thought somebody would have spoken in all this time.

[vienna]

The whole Earhart being captured by the Japanese theory has a few too many holes to be entirely plausible. It is known the US and, possibly, other Allied nations, were actively monitoring Japanese communications before and during the war. It seems highly unlikely Japanese troops would stumble upon and seize Earhart and not at least report the seizure to higher command and the report subsequently be intercepted by the US. If so, there would be a record of the intercept and it appears there is not; likewise, the Japanese were rather scrupulous about record keeping and even if a capture report were not intercepted, at lest some record would likely have been found by the US as they examined captured documents. It would be understandable neither the Japanese, who might have feared disclosing too much about their prewar activities or possibly inciting anti-Japanese feelings in the US, would want to make public the capture of Earhart nor would the US as it might tip their being able to intercept and decode Japanese communications. But it seems unlikely, after the war, for the US to continue to cover up a possible Earhart capture since there seems to be no real logical reason to do so. The whole theory just leads to too many unanswered questions...




<O>

[Aktungbby]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3153107/I-know-saw-saw-lady-Revealed-Pacific-islanders-insist-Amelia-Earhart-taken-prisoner-Japanese-crashing-remote-atoll.html

Bilimon Amram went to his grave insisting he not only saw Earhart and Noonan on the Koshu Maru, but also spoke to the navigator about the leg he broke when the plane crashed.
'Amram said the woman had short hair and long boots. He and the doctor didn't talk to her - they just treated the guy, had a conversation about his leg, and then they left.
'As they were leaving, he said he saw on the far side of the ship that there was a plane hanging there, with one wing broken.
'That was as much as they saw - that was what he told me and he had no reason to tell me that and I had no reason not to believe him.'
Domnick said that when he asked Amram if he was sure about what he had witnessed, his friend said forcefully: '"Hey guy" - that's what he always called me - "I know what I saw and I saw the lady!' Domnick recalled.
'"She was definitely American, not Japanese, and I did help fix Noonan's leg".'

Even though Dr. Amram had 'impeccable credentials', people lie, forget, or obfuscate details... but palm trees do not:

...islanders have claimed that the damaged aircraft was hauled across the island from the ocean side to the lagoon side on rail car wheels similar to those used by Japanese troops to move bombs. Rusty remains of those trollies are still to be seen on the island. Kramer's son Daniel, who joined a team of 11 researchers on an expedition to Mili atoll last January, pointed the team towards an area where the shorter trees indicated their relative youth compared to taller, older trees.
the find seems to support the theory that the aircraft was towed across the islands on the trolley by some 40 Marshallese villages, with trees having been cut down to make way for the rails.

As with native accounts of Little Big Horn they are truthful...and don't get into a jam with short hair and long boots! There are simply too many uninvolved no-ax-to-grind witnesses from Mili to Saipan that are consistent:

Identity: Locals reported that the woman was American and had 'short hair' and long boots...

After decades of the 80 year old 'party line' the truth-worm is perhaps beginning to turn:

...said the Japanese would have "lost face" if it emerged that Ms Earhart had landed on the Japanese-controlled island of Mili without their knowledge and would also have assumed that she was a spy. The US, he added, was fully aware that Ms Earhart had been captured because it had broken Japan's military and diplomatic codes. To request the fliers' freedom would have tipped the Japanese off, the theory goes, so the US "decided Earhart would become expendable",

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/local/cousin-japanese-captured-amelia-earhart/

[Mr Quatro]

All I saw was the ABC news reporting this and showing a picture that sure looked like her sitting on the edge of the dock.

I believe Aktungbby's rare find too, but then I still believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny.

Good research there Aktung.

[Gargamel]

This is no more than another Al Capone's Vault. Just clever marketing and promotion to garner interest in a show.

[propbeanie]

Whatever they're doing, they circled a native standing behind something, like a small flag marker or similar, instead of the white man under the broad-brimmed hat, in that "evidentiary" photo...