Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese in 1937?

dogmatix

New photo suggests Amelia Earhart survived and was captured by the Japanese, dying in 1939. It does seem to be suggesting an awful lot based on a poor quality photo from 1937…

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

coylemj

It's pure rubbish, designed to drum up publicity for a TV program....

The photograph was released by US TV network NBC ahead of a documentary to run this weekend. If the goal was to drum up attention - and hence audience numbers - it appears to have paid off.

Stovepipe

I doubt it, somehow. If they had captured such prominent and well-known Westerners, they would have asked Tokyo for advice via telegraph or long-range radio, which would mean that there might be written evidence somewhere, because signals people always record their sent and recieved messages. Also, the Japanese would probably have shipped the aircraft back to their own engineers for examination. It would have been a great propaganda coup to be seen to to have assisted the citizens of a country with whom they were not at war.

Rawr

coylemj wrote: »

It's pure rubbish, designed to drum up publicity for a TV program....

The photograph was released by US TV network NBC ahead of a documentary to run this weekend. If the goal was to drum up attention - and hence audience numbers - it appears to have paid off.

I can't help but imagine this show in relation to the various other historical investigation shows that made The History Channel and Discovery Channel so damned unwatchable in recently years. They have a knack of taking already thin lines of inquiry and stretching them beyond belief. I once watched a show were they were trying to prove that Hitler ended up in South America. The stuff they were using as "evidence" was ridiculous to say the very least. It didn't stop them saying things like: "This totally proves it! There was *definitely* something here!" All of which would be produced with that cheap "dramatic music" that they always use...

Although thin, the Japanese theory is not completely beyond belief, nor is it a new theory. Earhart may have happened upon the military installations that the Japanese were preparing in that area at the time, and previously it has been suggested that she had been executed after being captured. Possibly to keep the installations secret from foreign eyes, and possibly at the behest of a base commander who was not aware of Earhart's fame and possible value.

The photo (if it is actually her) would suggest that they weren't all that concerned with executing her, but then the question arises as to why they didn't use her rescue / capture for propaganda value (which they probably would have done). Some of the experts quoted also mention that the photo is not dated, and that there was only a short window of time that year where this could have been possibly her.

The most likely theory, and the only one I know of that has any evidence to back it up, is that Earhart & Noonan ended up shipwrecked on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro. A male skeleton was found there (maybe Noonan?) and the remains of what were probably some of Earharts possessions were found there too (specifically, parts of a pocket knife that she was known to have at the time.) No female remains were found, which continues to add to the mystery. Nightly distress calls from the plane for about 5 days suggested that the plane hadn't sunk immediately and may have been at land. The frequency of the calls may have been due to the tide coming in and out, and plane was only reachable during low tide. On the final day the plane may have been swept away from the island...possibly with Earhart still on board (thus no remains).

Apologies for my long rant. I'm a sucker for these Unsolved Mysteries (when they are investigated properly)