There has been much renewed interest as of late in one of the 20th centurys most compelling mysteries. On July 7, 1937 Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared while on route from Lea, New Guinea to a hastily set up refueling station constructed on Howland Island in the wide expanses of the remote Pacific. The two were well along in their attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the equator and only a few hops away from realizing their goal. After an exhausting search had been made in the surrounding International waters (the would-be rescuers were not allowed within the Japanese mandated territories lying further north) the two were declared lost at sea. Miss Earhart was technically a Kansas girl (born in Atchinson Ks. on July 24, 1897) who made a reputation for herself as a daring flyer. Somewhat of an early feminist who entered what was then considered a mans domain, her heroic feats continuously made headlines in the 1930s with her becoming famous for setting many aviation records. Miss Earhart later married her publicist, George Putnam, who sponsored and financed her later exploits. The reported finds of artifacts on desolate Nikumaroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) which lies 300 miles southeast of her destination, alleged by some to be personal effects which belonged to the aviatrix, have cast even more confusion upon the already perplexing 77 year-old mystery. For it is not necessarily a question of too little evidence, but rather a jumble of too many clues and conflicting data which seems to confound the issue. Members of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), have also announced the recovery of possible human remains, along with an aluminum navigators bookcase and a window covering patch which they claim to have come from the missing aircraft. But this flies in the face of what has already been discovered and presumed for decades - that Amelias Lockheed Electra was reportedly recovered by the Japanese hundreds of miles further north off the Mimi atoll, and she and her navigator captured at that time and held as spies! Because the authorities offer no information as to the fate of Amelia and her navigator, and with the pertinent documents in fact inexplicably still classified top secret after all these years, admittedly most (but not all) of the evidence concerning her survival is circumstantial, coming to us, for example, from the many US servicemen who stormed the beaches and occupied the formerly held Japanese islands, along with the islanders themselves who have offered testimony and other evidence which fleshes out the scenario of what actually occurred at that time. (The traumatized natives were at first reluctant to discuss Amelia with their liberators. Of the 24,000 inhabitants of Saipan, for instance, 8,000 committed suicide rather than surrender to the American invading forces. Of the 24,000 entrenched Japanese, only 1,780 allowed themselves to be taken alive.) Despite the fact that many of the mysteries surrounding the event seem to have been cleared up, the ultimate fate of Amelia Earhart is still unknown and a mystery! On the one side of the coin, conflicting testimony would suggest that AE either died of dysentry or was executed by her captives and either buried or cremated on the island of Saipan. Privates Everett Henson Jr. and First Class Billy Burks who served with the 2nd Marine Division, have both testified that they were recruited by Capt. Tracy Griswald (identified as an Intelligence officer with the 18th Marines, 2nd Division) to disinter the bodies of Amelia and Noonan on the island. They reportedly removed the two skeletonized bodies from the grave which were put in a box and spirited away by Griswald. Despite both his and the governments denial of any knowledge pertaining to this event, Col. Raymond C. Ball, Chief Historical Services Division, Headquarters Dept. of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History admitted in a letter to former Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, that they had a file entitled Earhart, Amelia, Information Regarding Location Of Grave Of. On the other side of the coin, other evidence seems to indicate that AE survived her experience, spending some time in captivity on Saipan before being expedited to Tokyo, but may have ended up instead in Japanese occupied China! It is a little-known fact that Amelias husband George received a telegram from his wife soon after the end of the war which proved that she had made it through her long ordeal unscathed. It read: CAMP LIBERATED - ALL WELL - VOLUMES TO TELL - LOVE TO MOTHER The telegram originated from the Canadian embassy in Weishen, China and was transmitted to its War Department late in August, 1945. It was dispatched from the Canadian government in Montreal for domestic delivery by U.S. Radiogram to George Palmer Putnam, 10042 Valley Spring Lane, North Hollywood, California. Soon after hostilities ended, Amelias best friend, Jackie Cochran, the commandant of the Womens Auxilliary Service Pilots (WASPS) was sent by way of the Phillipines to Tokyo by Gen. H.H. Hap Arnold. It is thought she had been sent on a clandestine mission to locate Amelia. She did report finding several government intelligence files on the aviatrix in Tokyos Dai Ichi Palace which may have held information as to her then-present whereabouts, but was blocked from proceeding further to Chungking. She appealed to the Sec. of War but nothing could be done. Gen. Wedemeyer had closed the Chinese Theatre because, it was said, post-war conditions there warranted it too dangerous for travel. And from there the trail grows cold. Nothing further was heard - Amelia Earhart had disappeared yet again! What, may we ask would AE be doing in China? Father Francis Briggs, a Jesuit priest who spoke the Japanese language and was detained in Tokyo as a prisoner of war, reported to American Intelligence that he had once overheard Japanese officers discussing Earhart. They said that she had been caught spying over the fortified zones, held on Saipan and would soon be transferred to Tokyo. (It should be noted that two boxes of material provided by Briggs are still on file in the national Archives and remain classified top secret to this day!) Wartime situations and heavy losses of Japanese shipping may have diverted transports to Japanese held portions of mainline China. Or it may be that survivors from a torpedoed Japanese transport which included AE had been taken there. (Japanese military records are scattered throughout the US and still have not been systematically translated and scrutinized.) It is known that over twenty one thousand POWs tragically lost their lives, locked in the holds of the transports which were used to convey them to Japan, when they were sunk by Allied submarines whose commanders were unawares of the precious cargoe onboard. Historians conclude that the majority of the unfortunate loss of life occurred in the sinkings of just five ships: the Montevideo Maru; the Tango Maru; the Shinyo Maru; the Rakoyo Maru; and the Juno Maru. One might ask why the continued secrecy and non-cooperation from the governments involved? Indeed, there may be very good reasons for both the governments of the U.S. and Japan to continue to remain silent about what actually transpired in relation to the loss of Amelia Earhart in the Pacific theatre almost eighty years ago. It is known that the Sec. of the Navy had an Earhart file that was placed under Top Secret classification in the Office of the Flag Secretary to the Chief of Naval Operations. Carroll F. Harris, a Navy photographer who was given a high security clearance so that he could photograph secret records on 16mm microfilm, has stated that the AE files he saw occupied three-quarters of a file cabinet drawer, and that although the government denies any involvement with the AE flight, the documents, he said, explained both the hows and whys of the Navys clandestine participation in the flight. It seems that AE was recruited as a spy, sent on the equivalent of a U2 spy plane reconnaissance mission to overfly and photograph the military fortification of the Marshall Islands that was thought to have been taking place by the Japanese in preparation for future hostilities with the West. (It is a routine matter to enroll doctors, teachers, tourists, scientists, adventurers, explorers, missionaries etc. as spies and many had previously been sent to the area but had either disappeared or were known to have been executed by the Japanese.) There were rumors afloat that Amelia was commissioned into the U.S. military as a major in the USAAF and indeed, compelling evidence in the form of a photograph of her being sworn in has been retrieved by investigators through the Freedom of Information Act! According to Earharts secretary, Margo de Carrie, a number of very senior military officers had visited the Putnams California residence while flight preparations were under way. The military had also taken over the arrangements of her last escapade which should have merely been a civilian affair, her aircraft having been quietly replaced by a faster Model 12 Electra with more powerful engines and updated communications and direction finding equipment in preparation for a diversion to the north once she had flown out of sight of Lae; A course that would take her over the island of Truk (Japans Pearl Harbor) in the Marshall chain and hopefully enable her to out-run any pursuing Japanese Zeros. Lockheed technician, Robert T. Elliott has also come forward to introduce additional evidence that certainly seems to prove that AE was on a spy mission: I was directed to cut two 16 - 18 inch holes for the cameras, which were to be mounted in the lower aft fuselage bay and would be electrically operated. An allocation of federal funds made through the Works Progress Administration was transferred to the Bureau of Air Commerce to carry out construction of the refueling station on Howland Island. Why, one might ask, would the government involve itself with, and spend so much time, effort and money on such a frivolous, vainglorious civilian pursuit as the achievement of yet another new aviation record? The Navy stationed the USS Swan halfway between Honolulu and Howland, the USS Ontario halfway between Howland and Lae and the Coast Guard cutter Itasca alongside the small island. It was reported that the government spent a fortune (an estimated four million [1937] dollars) in their failed search for Noonan and AE and also presumably to retrieve the canisters of precious exposed film. They could not search further north in the Japanese mandated territories where, in frustration, they probably knew the Electra had most likely gone down. Upon her disappearance, a task force, including the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, the battleship USS Colorado, the destroyers Drayton, Lamson and Cushing, the fuel tanker Ramapo and the minesweeper Swan, steamed east out of Hawaii and from west coast ports to rendezvous and join the others already on station. But the pre-war American fleet was at that time too weak a match for the already powerful forces of the Japanese Imperial Navy and no one wanted to provoke an incident or start a war at that time. Exposed spy that she most likely was, Amelias capture could neither be acknowledged nor she forcefully rescued. Imagine her predicament and the apprehension of knowing that spies were disavowed and routinely shot! But would her captors dare shoot such a famous personage as Amelia Earhart? Evidence shows that the Japanese military may have been suspicious of the AE flight from the start and indeed radio intercepts show that a carrier task force composed of the Akagi and three unnamed destroyer escorts was on patroll in the Marshalls at the time of her flight to Howland. Pan Am reported to U.S. Naval Intelligence that the Japanese naval vessels Koshu and Kamoi were also operating some four to six hundred miles northwest of the island. (Along her clandestine escape route as it turns out.) It is believed, from the testimony of witnesses, that AEs plane came down between Mili Atoll and Jaluit and was hauled aboard the Japanese seaplane tender Kamoi for transport. (The Kamoi sustained much damage throughout the war and was sunk off Hong Kong on Jan. 16, 1945. It is highly doubtful that any survivors of the crew would still be alive today to offer their recollections.) It is agreed by all that because of the now empty fuel tanks which were installed for the long flight, and which took up much of the interior spaces of the planes fuselage, the Electra could stay afloat almost indefinitely if not broken up too badly in a forced landing at sea. By a freak of atmospheric conditions, radio propagation was such that transmissions using AEs call sign KHAQQ were heard on 3105 and 6210 kilocycles by both amateur radio operators and government listening posts far and wide and long after the 3rd of July when the Electra was lost at sea. Inexplicably she seems not to have been able to hear their transmissions! And due to strong headwinds, unforseen bad weather with its accompanying poor visibility, which precluded a navigational fix on the stars, lost she was! 6:15 AM, About 200 miles out approximately. 6:45 AM, About 100 miles out. 7:42 AM, We must be on you but cannot see you. Gas running low. Have not been able to reach you by radio. Flying at 1,000 feet. 7:46 AM, We are circling but cannot see you. 8:44 AM, We are in line of position 157-337.....We are running north and south. On July 5, a Pan Am radio operator on Wake Island heard and logged the following message: SOS...SOS...SOS...SOS...Northwest unknown island 177 longitude.....Battery very weak.....Quite down, but radio still working.....Dont know how long we can hold out. And on the night of July 7, her voice was again heard over the static: Earhart calling. NRU1 - NRU1 calling from KHAQQ...On coral southwest of unknown island. And then there was silence! The Heine brothers, John and Dwight, who worked for the Japanese as dockworkers on Taroa Isle, told investigators that they had helped with the unloading of the Electra there from a Japanese ship and that it was missing a wing. Indeed, a USAAF reconnaissance photograph taken during the bombing of that island in 1944, shows the distinctive twin-tailed monoplane with one wing missing. (It should be noted that the Japanese flew nothing resembling the Electra.) It was said that the plane and its crew were transferred (separately) to various islands in stages ending up at Saipan, which became the wartime headquarters for Japanese military operations in the Marianas. After the amphibious assault upon the island, Robert E. Wallack, a machine gunner assigned to D Company, 29th Marines, found a cache of documents there pertaining to AE and her around-the-world flight, including maps, permits and reports which he said he turned over to a Naval Officer. He reportedly asked himself: What am I doing with Amelia Earharts briefcase when she crashed in the ocean? (Of course every young American boy had heard of the famous flyer and that she had reportedly been lost at sea.) Another soldier on the island found a valise full of her publicity photos. PG 32. Robert Sosbe, 1st Battalion 20th Marines, 4th Division said that he had seen the aircraft on or about D+5 at the Alsito airfield. Pg 36 Marine Capt. Earl Ford reportedly saw there a civilian plane which he was told by officers belonged to Amelia Earhart. Pg 50 Robert Sowash, 23rd regiment 4th Marines Division also saw a civilian aircraft which was being referred to as Amelia Earharts. Pete lelanc, 121st regiment 4th Marines division said: some of our guys were sneaking over towards the airfield to get a glimpse of the famous aviators plane. And others claimed to have witnessed the purposely carried out destruction of said aircraft. (After the war, thousands of aircraft, some in perfect condition, were bulldozed into heaps of scrap in the S. Pacific rather than incurring the expense of shipping them back home. But in this case the motive, it seems, had been to hide any evidence of AEs secret misadventure.) Until the end of WW11, Micronesia had been a possession of Japan. The native islanders had not as of yet been exposed to radio broadcasting nor motion pictures and their accompanying newsreels, and therefore had never heard of Amelia Earhart and her heroic exploits. In fact, they had never before seen a Caucasian! Never-the-less, dozens of them described her to a T! A thin, white-skinned female who wore her dark reddish-brown hair cropped short like a boy. A woman who dressed like a man wearing long pants and a shirt with a scarf. A friendly but sad woman with a nice smile for all. A woman who it was said had been a pilot and a spy, whose silver plane had come down on an atoll and she and her injured companion captured by the Japanese. Many unhesitantly pointed to the likeness of AE when presented with a collection of photos of Caucasian women. At that time and in that remote setting who else could it have been? Seeing this woman was an unforgettable occasion as never before had the islanders ever seen or heard of such a person. Bilimon Amaron was a health aide to a Japanese physician on Jaluit Island and said that he was summoned to Kamoi to treat a white man with a head injury and a white woman wearing trousers. He was told they had been picked up by a ship between the Gilbert and Mili Islands. He later identified AE from photographs presented to him by investigators. Matilde San Nicholas, daughter of a Chamorran mother and Japanese father had said that as a young girl she had been given a ring by this woman. When she in turn was shown a number of photos presented to her she also unhesitantly pointed to the photo of Amelia Earhart. Josepha Reyes Sablan of Chalan Kanoa saw the two white people taken into the military police headquarters in Garapan. Jesus Salas reported that the white woman had been placed in a cell next to his sometime during 1937. Antonio M. Cepada said he too had seen the American spy woman. Dozens of others have offered similar testimony. And compelling evidence in the form of a here-to-for never before seen photograph of AE depicting her in Japanese custody, taken on the island by a Saipan police officer named Thomas Blas has been turned over to investigator, Major Joseph Gervais USAF! (This photo is conspicuously absent from the myriad of other photos of AE displayed on the world wide web!) Amelia Earhart was a very popular and iconic feminine personage. At one time the American public might have become outraged that the heroine they nicknamed Lady Lindy would be recruited as a spy and introduced to such a dangerous situation. And they would be further angered that it had been known all along that she had been captured and subjected to the indignities of captivity by the cruel Japanese and that the public had not be informed as to the true state-of-affairs. Hence the secrecy surrounding the government involvement. But today all that drama is long behind us and the public would more easily accept the terrible truth and therefore the secret files should now be opened! A great disservice has been done AE. The public is largely unaware that there was yet another side to her and another chapter should be added to her biography describing her patriotism and bravery and sacrifice, with laurels showered upon her anew. But, unfortunately, that will probably never happen! Governments dont like to be exposed and embarassed. They and their controlled mainstream media mouthpieces will not condone conspiracy theories backed by evidence. Such claims will always be denigrated and information supporting those facts kept from public scrutiny. Alternative, less-damaging scenarios will be offered to confuse the issue. Through sophisticated propaganda techniques, it is said, facts that were once well-known in the past can be made to simply disappear. Thirty years ago people were becoming aware of the truth. The knowing older generations who lived through such things and were exposed to the facts are a dying breed whose voices will soon be stilled and the newer are fed convenient misinformation to replace uncomfortable truths. Information suggests that Amelia Earhart may have sacrificed herself to preserve freedom and American ideals. Let us hope that she and all the others like her did not die in vain!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 07:33:09 +0000
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