When Is A Book Not a Book? Evidence that proves the ship was in Jaluit

In light of the latest hoopla with regard to the infamous photograph of the dock on Jaluit that proves Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were in Japanese custody...

Your honor... I present further evidence.

Let's recap, shall we?

The History Channel and my friend Les Kinney release a photograph that shows a number of verifiable details.  A ship identified on the show as the Koshu towing a plane on a Japanese barge with the same dimensions as the Electra. 

The show examines that the ship indeed was the Koshu.  We have records from the Koshu itself that show it was in Jaluit in July of 1937 (more on that later.)

The photograph in the portfolio - not a book, nor "a copyrighted book" - but a photo album that's been stamped 1935 - never published, not ever a book -  (if we can't agree on what a book is, what's the point of language anyway?) A book is bound - it's published, it's reprinted - that's not the case here. 

Guess they couldn't bind books in Japan without string.
Or perhaps it is what it is - a porfolio of photos stamped as 1935 incorrectly.

It's a photograph with other photographs taken by the same photographer tied together with the traditional string that photo albums have. 

1935 stamp. Not a copyright notice. Not a bound book by any stretch 
of the imagination. Not a published, reproduced book.  
No other copies of this portfolio.

That's all very clear from the website itself.

Hey look, a 1937 Ford! (just kidding - but you get the idea)

The photo caption for the photograph of the Jaluit dock actually says the ship in the photo is the "Koshu."  Gee willickers - you can't claim the photo proves one thing, then doesn't prove another thing.

When was the Koshu at the dock in Jaluit?  I reveal that below.

The photo has: A man standing on the dock who forensic photo experts claim is a match with Fred Noonan, and the back of what appears to be a woman crouching.  

It looks to my eye that it is Amelia's back - but then I've only amassed 5000 photographs of her, watched 30 hours of stock footage of her, been hired on the Diane Keaton and Hilary Swank films, have been studying her back for oh... 30 years now.  Could it be someone else's back?  I suppose so. But from the pose that I see - my brain said "oh, look, Amelia's back."

So there are other people on the dock as well.  Can these folks be placed on the dock in 1937. As I showed in a previous post here - yes, there is some evidence of Europeans being arrested, detained by the Japanese on these docks in the past.  De Bisschop is one, the fellow "V B 2" who wrote the "I saw Earhart in custody on the dock at Jaluit in 1937" letter is another.

But I digress.

The Marshall Islands issued a preliminary press release where they refuted the "debunking"of the photograph - claiming that their records and oral histories show that dock was not built until 1936.

(They've issued a second official release where they didn't mention the dock, but reaffirmed that they believe the words of the elders who claim they saw the Electra come down, saw the woman pilot arrested, and reported the dock was not built until 1936.)

So what else can we glean from this photograph?

Well, a number of things.

As reported below, an eyewitness who claimed he spoke to a stevedore who helped drag the Electra off of Mili Atoll, and then put it on a Japanese barge which took the Electra to a Japanese ship docked in Majuro.

Andew Bryce, Navy Vet, who spoke to the stevedore on Majuro
who claimed he transported the Electra to a Japanese barge, then to a Japanese ship. His brother Douglas saw the Electra in a hangar on Saipan. What are the odds two vets - brothers would hold key clues to her plane? (Both interviewed in the "eyewitnesses on saipan" footage)

There's an eyewitness report in the footage below that quotes a Marshallese congressman who remembers the day in 1937 when his father took him to the dock to show him the plane on the back of the Japanese ship, and told him about the arrest of an "American spy."

He was a boy when his dad to him to the dock in 1937 to show him the Electra.

There's an eyewitness report in the footage below where Bilimon Amaron, a local on Jaluit, claims the Japanese brought him aboard the Japanese ship to examine Amelia and Fred and he saw the plane on a sling on the back of the ship.

Bilimon Amaron, a man above reproach,
according to his business partner of 40 years. 
Bilimon was filmed at least twice, 
and his story reported in a number of books.

But maybe they're all wrong? Maybe they made that up?

What's a simple logical way to learn if and when this ship, identified by many sources as the Koshu, wound up on Jaluit?

The ship's records.

Turns out there's someone who has examined the ship's records.  Vincent Loomis.  Turns out he wrote about examining those records in 1985.  I found these references this morning, and I will post them verbatim and where they came from:

From a page marked "Warships in the Marshalls in 1937"

Subject: Warships in the Marshalls
Date: 2/21/01
From: "R.R."
Concerning Japanese military in 1937, I have a document that might be of interest.

Department of State
Division of Far Eastern Affairs
5 July 1937
Subject: Search for plane of Amelia Earhart

"Mr. Hayama informed Mr. Ballentine over the telephone that the Japanese Embassy had received an urgent telegram from Tokyo asking that inquiry be made of this Government whether the Japanese Government could be of assistance in connection with the search for Amelia Earhart, in view of the fact that Japan had radio stations and warships in the Marshall Islands... Mr. Ballantine expressed his appreciation etc."

"The significance is that the Japanese did have warships in the Marshall islands on 5 July 1937."

Subject: Re: Warships in the Marshalls
Date: 2/22/01
From: "D.P."

"At the very least, it shows that someone at the Department of State thought that the Japanese had warships in the Marshalls. This is the same intelligence that missed the Japanese planning to bomb Pearl Harbor. Their beliefs could have been incorrect."

(reply) From Ric

The communication alleges that Mr. Hayama (presumably of the Japanese Embassy) called Mr. Ballantine (presumably at the U.S. State Dept.) to tell him that the embassy had just received an offer from the Japanese government to help with the Earhart search because "Japan had radio stations and warships in the Marshall Islands...". 

"This would seem to be a rather straightforward acknowledgement by Japan that it had warships in the Marshall Islands. What ships were they?"

"For (sic) his book Amelia Earhart : The Final Story, Vince Loomis went to considerable efforts to dig out the records of what Japanese ships were in the Marshalls in July 1937. He was trying to figure our (sic) what ship his star witness, Bilimon Amaron, had seen carrying the Earhart Electra on its aft deck." 

"His book claims that he was able to determine that the Japanese really did not carry out the search for Earhart they later claimed to have made, because the ships of the "12th Squadron" supposedly used in the search were, in fact, in port in Japan the whole time. A survey ship also said to have participated in the search, the Kamui (meaning "God's power" and incorrectly listed as Kamoi in most Earhart books) was also in home waters." 

"The only ship Loomis could come up with anywhere near the Marshalls was the seaplane tender Koshu. She was in Ponape, about 400 miles west of the Marshalls, on July 2, 1937 and arrived in Jaluit in the Marshalls on July 13. Loomis says Koshu then left Jaluit but returned sometime before July 19 when she sailed for Truk and eventually Saipan. It is between its departure from and return from Jaluit that he says the ship picked up Earhart, Noonan and the plane at Mili Atoll in the southern Marshalls.

LTM,
Ric"

Subject: Re: Warships in the Marshalls
Date: 2/23/001
From: "R.J."

"Here's a pertinent extract from the book TFKing, and others are writing:

"The U.S. also asked the Japanese to search the areas around the Marshall Islands, and official correspondence at the time indicated that they asked the oceanographic survey ship Koshu to do so. The Koshu arrived in the Marshall Island area on or about July 9th, and continued searching for about ten days. 

A 1949 U.S. Army Intelligence report states that despite the fact that no documentation exists in the Japanese Navy, interviews of Japanese officials on Jaliut (sic) and elsewhere indicated that both the Koshu and Kamoi searched the Marshall Islands, with the assistance of a large-type flying boat. Bridge logs of the Kamoi clearly state it was no where near the Marshalls during this time, and we have no documentary evidence that a flying boat was ever used to search for wreckage. 

The report also states that no traces of the Electra were found. 1. The Japanese also offered to search the Gilberts, an offer that seems to have been (understandably) ignored. 2. The Koshu was doing oceanographic surveys, and based upon their reports, one can deduce from their speed and departure date to have arrived in the Marshalls (Jaluit) no earlier than July 9th. 

Official correspondence between the US Navy and State Dept. and Japanese officials at that time acknowledge only the Koshu in assisting in the survey for AE wreckage.... 

What's interesting about this Army Intelligence report is that it is the first document that names the Kamoi. Every AE book states the Kamoi and Koshu were involved in the search. Hmmm. Now about that seaplane...no confirming documents on its existance (sic) ...but I wonder if the anecdotes about a plane being sighted in and around Jaluit during the search phase on the back of a ship was this seaplane and not AE's...I wonder..."

1 US Army Intelligence, 1949a; Kamoi bridge logs in Jacobson archives; Maritime Safety Agency, Tokyo, 1951, Hydrographic Bulletin, 981(8).
2 Western Pacific High Commission, 1937a; U.S. Department of State, 1937; U.S. Navy, 1937e; Spading, 1997.

(reply) From Ric

"We clearly have the Kamui (Kamoi - whatever) nailed, but I'm a bit fuzzy about the Koshu. The Loomis book includes copies of various diplomatic exchanges between the U.S. and Japan but there's no reference to the Koshu. Mike Holt couldn't find a Koshu in A. J. Watts' Japanese Warships of WW2. I wonder what evidence we have that there even was such a boat?

The Honolulu Star Bulletin has an AP release dated 6 Jul 37 from New York; in sum, Japanese officials report that the "2100 ton survey ship Kooshu [sic]" is searching in the Marshall Islands. (In the main article the spelling is "Koshu", so probably an extra "o" typo. Also the Japanese were searching in "other areas near Howland".)

"This is probably independent corroboration of the Koshu's status. Fukiko Aoki, Japanese author, writes in Searching for Amelia Earhart in 1984 (not translated as of yet) that there were two Japanese ships in the area. The "battleship Koshu" and the carrier Kamoi." 

(RM: Obvious error or mistranslation from Ms. Aoki - not a battleship) 

"According to her, she reviewed the logs of the Koshu which reflect the dates and places reported by Ric. The Koshu left Jaluit on 19 Jul 37 headed to Saipan."

(RM: Hello? The Koshu was in Jaluit from July 9th to July 19th?  Then headed to Saipan?  Gee, I wonder what it was taking to Saipan?  Oh, I don't know. Perhaps that shiny aluminum plane that both Bilimon Amaron and Oscar De Brum claim they saw?

There are multiple reports that claim Amelia was taken to Saipan by hydroplane - there is even a claim that a suitcase of hers was found on Truk. (By a GI during the war) I'm claiming neither, but there have been claims made about both.

Ms. Blanco-Akiyama says she was at the seaplane harbor when Amelia and Fred came up the docks, as does the son of another eyewitness in the "Eyewitnesses on Saipan" footage below. (As do eyewitnesses in Goerner's book and his interviews in 1963. But these documents are posted on a research webpage that states that the Koshu not only was docked in Jaluit in July of 1937 but that it went from Jaluit to Saipan. How cool is that?)

Subject: Re: Warships in the Marshalls
Date: 2/22/01
From: "E. E."
Found on www.ibiblio.org/pha/pha/misc/45-41.html

From: U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings; Pt. 35, the Clausen Investigation, pp. 52-62.

Fourth Fleet:
Survey and Patrol Division: Koshu

"Seems to be some sort of cargo ship"

From Ric

"Bingo. Nice work. At least a ship by that name existed."

These reports printed from: 
https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights121_140/highlights127p2.html


The "Ric" in these reports are written replies from the founder of Tighar.org, Ric Gillespie. (Whose latest expedition (I think this is the 7th or 8th over the past 30 years) is being covered by National Geographic. The one with the cadaver dogs.)

These mentions of the Koshu on Jaluit are from his excellent repository of all things Earhart, the extensive research files from Tighar.org

Not to be overly obvious - but these messages were from 2001.  They were generally focused on the Kamoi - a ship that many thought was involved with the search for AE's plane.  But obviously, it's the Koshu that deserves focus.

Here's the Koshu in the photograph (so identified in the photo caption when put into the photo album originally).

And as confirmed here for the first time, it's in the ship's records that it was docked in Jaluit in July of 1937.

THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS OBVIOUSLY TAKEN BETWEEN JULY 9 AND JULY 19TH 1937. IT'S THE ONLY TIME THE DOCK EXISTED AND THE KOSHU WAS IN THE HARBOR AT THE SAME TIME.

Amelia kneeling in front of the wheel that the dust cover
came from in a previous post

People tend to put theories in opposing camps.

Frankly, I don't care a fig about opposing camps. Or theories. I stick to when there is more than one eyewitness report that can be corroborated. 

I have no beef with Tighar or their work, or their research. I admit I was annoyed when I got to Saipan and someone from their organization called the Saipan newspaper ("Marianas Variety") and claimed I was some "Hollywood" fellow trying to get people to say anything on camera. That I was influencing their replies by 'twisting the questions.' The article was posted before I'd interviewed anyone.

The opposite was true.  I found pretty quickly that if you go to Saipan and ask about Earhart people close their doors in your face.  Or spout the official story that she disappeared.  Unless you ask them the question "So what was it like for you and your family during and prior to the war?"

And when they open up about their experiences, their own life stories - they begin to talk about how well they got along with the Japanese, how Japan brought wealth and friends to the island from 1914 on. That it was only just prior to the onset of war that they suddenly imported battle weary troops from Manchuria who treated the Saipanese "as slaves." Who executed them for not bowing low enough. Who took all of their homes and sent the populace to live in caves.

Photo from a private family album on Saipan

And after those stories, I'd ask "So did you or anyone in your family ever hear anything about a female pilot on Saipan?" 

And they would preface it with "I don't know who she was. If you ask me if it was Earhart, I will tell you - I don't know. We called all Caucasian people Europeans. (Spain ruled Saipan, then Germany, then Japan, now the US.)  

But yes, my "mother" "brother" "father" "grandfather" told the following story..." - and that is the eyewitness testimony I gathered.  10 hours of it.

When the Prime Minister of Japan visited Saipan. A private family photo.

And the stories were the same. She ("the female pilot" "the european woman dressed like a man") came to the island in July of 1937. Many people saw her - only the people who saw her weren't "Europeans."  

As I told the Marianas Variety "It's a peculiar form of racism that doesn't listen to eyewitness testimony of islanders and claims people didn't see what they saw, or for some reason would lie about it, or somehow conspire to tell THE SAME STORY." (emphasis added, because well, it's annoying to have to repeat myself)

I didn't bother uploading the parts where they spoke of how their families survived the war - for example, one fellow said "I saw Amelia just prior to the War."  I said "You mean in 1941?"  He said "No, it was May of 1944. She was on the back of a truck..."  

His memory of seeing Earhart on the back of a truck was
independently corroborated by another Saipanese businessman
who claimed he saw the same truck on the same day a mile further down the road.

I realized May of 44 was just prior to "the war" which began on Saipan in June...when the US came ashore. It's an example of listening with "Caucasian ears."  I thought he meant the war that began in 1941. He meant the war that began on Saipan in 1944.

As I've mentioned before - I was part of the sizzle reel for the History Channel show, and I was asked to be part of it, but I ultimately declined.  

I have my own Earhart projects, and am not invested in selling anyone's point of view. I don't represent the show, or their theory or any other nonsense. 

Yes, the show had many details that can be verified in my research as well. But enough with the "tastes great" "less filling" arguments - there is evidence that points to these simple facts that she landed the plane, it was picked up, and she and plane were taken to Saipan where numerous people saw her, and US Marines found her plane.

I'm just interested in the truth.

We owe that to her at the very least.

I'd like to congratulate Tighar for helping to prove the precise date that the Koshu was in Jaluit.  They got it originally from Vincent Loomis' book about Earhart, who Mr. Gillespie quotes above.

Apparently the ships records prove that the Koshu arrived in Jaluit on July 9th and stayed until the 19th.

Six days after she landed at Mili atoll.

Three days after she was heard broadcasting from her plane (and Tighar's reports show those reports extensively). 

Three days after the Japanese came to the island, arrested her - dragged the Electra (with the help of 40 Marshallese men) onto the barge and transported it to Majuro and then to Jaluit. (The Marshallese men were interviewed by Mike Harris, Dick Spink, Les Kinney and Jim Hayton. I was invited on that trip too, but declined.)

So there you have it. 

Proof that the Koshu was in Jaluit in July, 1937.

Just as its been reported.

Just as its shown in this photograph.

The photo must have been taken sometime between July 9th and 19th, 1937.  

So the Marshallese government says that its elders remember the dock being built in 1936. As they noted so eloquently; there was no dock in 1935.  

The League of Nations forbid it - yet when they built the dock, add fortifications, guns, ammo - they began arresting, beheading, detaining Europeans as spies.

That's why this photograph was classified and in the Office of Naval Intelligence. 

Not because it showed the Electra on a barge on the back of the Koshu. Not because it showed Amelia - or a woman who has the same shoulders as Amelia - or Fred Noonan standing on the dock.

Because it proved there was a new dock.

Just a little bit of evidence that proves the same thing that's been said before.  Amelia was captured by the Japanese, taken to Jaluit - and later to Saipan. Seven years later on June 19th 1944, the Electra was found by US Marines at Aslito airfield on Saipan. (see the eyewitness reports below and to the side of this panel.) Her briefcase was recovered, part of her body, and the Electra itself was destroyed (and witnessed by these GIs)

Saipan is where she died. Where the Electra was found on June 19th 1944 by US Marines.

It's not an opinion, belief or theory.  It's just eyewitness reports.  Not conflicting reports. Consistent reports. The same story. If you can only open your ears.

You're welcome.

New Expedition to Mili Atoll

A new expedition has been launched for an official visit to Mili Atoll.

When the tide is out "a 747 could land here" said one expert.

Sponsored by Parker Hannifin Aerospace Company, which had airplane parts on the original Electra, this expedition will gather new evidence as to whether or not Amelia Earhart's Electra came down on Mili.

Courtesy Purdue University

For those not familiar with the story....

Mike Harris visited the Marshall Islands in the 1980's while investigating the Earhart saga.  While he was there, he gathered accounts from a number of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen her and Fred Noonan after the Electra came down.

Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, Rich Martini and Mike Harris

Bilimon Amaron said that he treated her wounds aboard a Japanese ship, and that he saw the Electra on the back of that ship.

Amaron being interviewed by Harris in the 1980s. From Harris' footage shot in 1980.

Oscar DeBrum, former recording secretary of the Marshalls said his father told him that an American pilot had been captured and he saw the Electra on the back of this ship as well.

Oscar DeBrum saw the plane on the Japanese ship. From Harris' interview in 1980.

Andrew Bryce, WWII veteran said that he was stationed on Majuro, Marshall Islands during the war and that a stevedore had told him that he had transported the Electra aboard a Japanese barge to a Japanese ship from Mili. (Andrew's brother Douglas saw the Electra on Saipan, but that's another part of the story.)

Andrew Bryce from "Earhart's Electra" spoke to a man who transported the Electra. 

Oliver Knaggs went to the Marshalls in the 1980's with a film crew and filmed islanders, including the Queen of Mili, who claimed they saw Earhart's Electra land at Mili.  Other islanders said they had heard the stories, and knew where the plane came down.

Lotan Jack and others were told to keep quiet about the female pilot/American spy the Japanese captured.
From Mike Harris' 16mm footage shot in the 1980s.

Dick Spink, a school teacher from Seattle, who works frequently in the Marshall Islands, helped organize a trip to the exact spot where the islanders said they saw her plane came down.  And as reported here and in other newspapers, the pieces that he brought back from Mili have been identified - "beyond a reasonable doubt" by NTSB forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton (who has testified before Congress) that they are likely from her Electra.

APU cover with paint that resembles the trim from the Electra. Courtesy Dick Spink.

Specifically, there are two parts. An APU cover that was painted with the same kind of red trim that the Electra was painted with for easy identification (and Hayton has looked at it under a microscope and verified the primer was of that era) and a dust shield that went in the brake assembly of only an Electra 10E.  

That dust shield is listed in the Electra's manual, and is pictured belonging between the brake and the Good Year air wheel.

Jim Hayton demonstrating how the piece fit on his Good Year air wheel, which is identical the the one on the Electra.

Aviation expert Hayton owns one of those air wheels, and has demonstrated that it fits on the same air wheel that was on her plane. In his professional opinion, the dust shield could only have come from her Electra.

So Mike Harris, intrepid explorer, the man who hired Bob Ballard to help him look for the Titanic (and Ballard went back to the location with a new team where they had searched before, and actually found the ship) has mounted a new expedition to Mili Atoll, bringing along a team of experts.

These were used to transport the Electra to the barge, according to locals. They're the same gauge as other Japanese rail cars used for sugar cane transport on Saipan and other islands. Photo courtesy Dick Spink.

Mike is leading the following team:

Jared Abraham does surveys for the US Geological Survey Department using ground penetrating radar. (He was found by pilot Paul Cooper during our Saipan expedition).  Les Kinney is a retired Federal agent who has 27 years of hard evidence that he's gathered about the government's knowledge of her disappearance, and is writing a book about his research,  Jim Hayton is an expert in forensic aviation, called to many crash sites in the Pacific Northwest where he lives, and is friends with Dick Spink, the school teacher who has made four trips to this exact location on this atoll. The team is traveling with Martin Daly, who runs tours from these islands, as well as the son of Jerry Kramer, who was Bilimon Amaron's business partner for 40 years, and has vouched for Bilimon's "unassailable honesty." Also some folks from Parker Hannifin Aerospace Industries are on the trip as well.

Circumstances prevented yours truly from accompanying them on this epic leg of the Earhart saga, but I'm rooting for them from cyberspace.

They're going to be searching for more pieces of the Electra, as there have been eyewitness accounts of more pieces of the plane, as well as eyewitness testimony of people who are related to those who saw her plane come down. 

For those concerned these might be airplane parts from "other Electras" or other airplanes - there were no recorded battles fought over these particular islands during WWII, and no other artifacts have been found from any other planes, despite four expeditions led by Dick Spink. The location of these pieces dovetails with the evidence, both local eyewitnesses and other evidence that will prove beyond a shadow of any doubt that she came down in Mili atoll in 1937.  

The rest of the story will be told soon enough, but for now, where she came down will have to be rewritten by those who care about the historical record.  Theoretical models exist of how and why the Electra should not have been able to make this same island chain where Louis Zamperini washed up ("Unbroken") after 47 days at sea (In Wotje), but theoretical models should not trump physical evidence that is backed up by eyewitness accounts.  

The fact is that it appears now that Amelia flew the Electra all the way to Mili, and landed it on a runway of rough coral. When the tide is low, one eyewitness said "You could land a 747 on this atoll." It would have been low tide when her Electra arrived, when a number of islanders saw her bring the metal plane to the ground.  Her amazing flying feat saved her life and that of her navigator Fred Noonan by making it this far, and the evidence will eventually prove what the rest of their journey was, as difficult as the evidence shows it to be.

So there now exists physical evidence of her amazing feat of skill, and exactly where her plane came down. Knock on wood, these explorers will bring back more.

Lest we forget why we're doing this research. To honor the sacrifice of these two explorers; Fred Noonan and Amelia Earhart. Courtesy Purdue University

Thanks to Parker Hannifin Corporation, Aerospace Industries, who not only had original plane parts in the Electra, but their generous sponsorship for this expedition which may actually locate exactly where the Electra came down and provide more evidence for the solution of the Earhart puzzle.

Stay tuned. 

Latest piece of the electra found?

It's funny how Discovery seems to be a spokesperson for these expeditions to Nikamauroro.  Why is it that only Rosella Lorenzi is the only writer credited with these stories?

And this latest discovery?

That very piece they're claiming was from the Electra was discounted by Electra expert Elgen Long 22 years ago:

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-30/news/vw-278_1_amelia-earhart

March 30th, 1992,

"Long recruited a formidable panel of volunteers: a professor of metals engineering; a structures engineer for Navy patrol aircraft; the owner of two Lockheed 10 airplanes, and the assistant foreman, now retired, of the Lockheed fuselage shop at the time Earhart's plane was built.

The group pored over photographs of the piece. They examined blueprints and engineering orders for repairs to the airplane's underside needed after a takeoff accident ended an earlier Earhart attempt to fly around the world. And the team visited a 1936 Lockheed 10B at Oakland's Western Aerospace Museum.
The associates placed the template over the starboard belly of the airplane. They slid the piece over all other exterior sections of the airplane. Just in case.

"We decided the fragment could have come from anywhere . . . anywhere but Amelia Earhart's airplane," Long says.

The latest article asks for funding for the eleventh expedition.


Actually just read the last paragraph of the DiscoveryNew.com article. “Funding is being sought, in part, from individuals who will make a substantial contribution in return for a place on the expedition team,” Gillespie said." 

22 years ago, this piece of the plane was definitely said "not to be from the Electra." 

Experts were consulted, and for the past 24 years (since it was found) it was considered just another piece of junk. 

Question is - where's the rest of the plane? So we're to believe that the plane crashed - but then sank - where he wants to get people to fund his expedition to find it. So this one piece either fell on its way into the water - or magically jumped up onto land.

He's had TEN EXPEDITIONS to this island. ABC funded a couple - one guy sued him over the last one. I wish it was a piece from her plane. Alas, it would mean that over 200 islanders and over a dozen US Marines (that I have on film) were lying. That they didn't see her plane, didn't see her incarcerated on Saipan. That she wasn't executed by the Japanese for being an American when the US launched the invasion of their Headquarters for the war in the Pacific.

That all these islanders who came forward during my trip to Saipan last year - who never have spoken about what they saw, or what their parents saw or what their relatives told them - was untrue. Again - I'd LOVE for this to be her plane. Then it would mean she didn't die the tragic death everyone has told me she died... in their own words.

I'm sorry to say - there's not real evidence that links that piece to her plane - other than saying "it's a patch that she got in Florida." Which is why it was discounted 24 years ago. 

But gee, the article doesn't mention that, now does it? How could the author of this piece have missed that key detail?

Oh well. Stay tuned.

Amelia's Patch Found yet not found!

Hilarious. "If" we can match the patch, means they didn't, could not. Why continue to finance trips if you've already found the patch? Over 200 islanders saw AE and Fred Noonan after she disappeared. They saw the Electra come down, they saw it put on a Japanese ship and they saw it transported to Saipan (part of Japan since 1914). They saw her in prison, they saw her executed. US Marines found the plane June 19, 1944 and watched as US forces destroyed it.  There's no mystery here.  The mystery is how these "photos" become "news"!?! Just listen to the eyewitnesses and judge for yourself (please):

If you want to know what really happened - according to eyewitness reports, watch this clip:

Amelia Earhart on Saipan

Happy Birthday Amelia

The latest clips from eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan, or heard from someone who did.

Earhart On Saipan - The Facts

Latest updates:

Recently we spoke to a woman in Hawaii whose father claims that he was aware of Amelia's plane coming down in Mili Atoll. We're in the process of getting an interview with this woman in Hawaii.  That will add to the many interviews we obtained while on Saipan.

To watch excerpts of those interviews, please click on the link that takes you to the youtube video "Earhart On Saipan" - to date we have nearly two dozen new eyewitnesses.  People who actually saw her on Saipan, people whose parents saw her on Saipan, people who claim they saw her on a Japanese ship that took her to Saipan, people who claim their parents saw or heard or had some first hand knowledge of her being on Saipan.




Our premised has always been simple.  Ask people what they saw. Compare their stories.  It's not a matter of conjecture, or a matter of wanting her to be alive somewhere - it's just asking human beings what they saw or heard.  People's memories are faulty - people's memories of what someone said to someone else may also be faulty - but when you take the amount of eyewitnesses, and add that to the fact that they've been saying consistently the same thing for the past 50 years, but no one outside of Saipan seems to want to know about it... you're left with the puzzling fact that despite numerous eyewitnesses, no one wants to believe what it is they've said.

That's why we went to Saipan with a camera and filmed them. So they could speak in their own words and not through the filter of an author.  Let their testimony be what it is.  And when you examine the dozens of cases - they all tell the same story.

1. She came down in Mili Atoll.  Numerous island witnesses (including the father of the woman mentioned above from Mili) talked about, heard about her, or saw her landing the Electra on Mili. She and Fred Noonan were arrested by the Japanese occupying that atoll for being spies and put aboard a Japanese ship.

2. That Japanese ship and the Electra were taken to Majuro, then Jaluit, then Truk, then Japan.

3. People who aren't aware that Saipan was part of Japan and was considered homeland since 1914 - don't understand the previous sentence.

4. While in Saipan (part of Japan) she was in a hospital and looked after while they decided what to do with her and Fred. Saipan was the command post for the Japanese navy.

5. The Electra was taken to Aslito airfield and stored in a hangar.

6. She spent the next 7 years in prison. Fred was executed early on.  She was moved to at least two different cells, one tiny, and the one she spent the bulk of her time in larger but no less difficult - thin roof, in a row of cells that could house about a dozen prisoners at any given time, She was seen here, reported to be here by a few villagers (included in the footage above).

7. Many islanders saw her on the island, or heard of her presence there while she was incarcerated.

8. Sometime in early 1944 two US pilots were shot down over Saipan.  They were arrested and put into prison as well.

9. Around May of 1944 she and the two pilots were taken by truck through the island. She (and the pilots) were seen by at least two eyewitnesses (both on camera, in the interviews above)

10. She was executed.  The two pilots were executed as well, and their bodies were exhumed by a tribunal to see if they'd been tortured. (a matter of public record)

11.  Despite numerous locations where islanders claim she was buried (we've cataloged three cemeteries) we have corroborating testimony that she was beheaded and cremated - considered a more humane and religiously honorable death by the Japanese.

12. We've filmed the crematorium where she was reportedly cremated and have an interview with a woman who lived next to the prison whose Japanese grandfather told her the truth about the "American femal pilot."

13. A Japanese veteran told a Saipanese villager in 1995 that he was one of those assigned to behead and cremate her.

14. Her plane was found in June of 1944 by US Marines. (We have 6 eyewitnesses so far). The plane was guarded by US forces until a decision came to destroy it. It was flown once around the airfield. (6 eyewitnesses) It was then taken to the south end of the field and burned. (3 eyewitnesses). Her briefcase was found and given to military intelligence (two eyewitnesses).

15. Her death and the finding of the plane was covered up by the military.  Why is not yet known.  Perhaps to "protect her reputation" as was reported in 1945 to Eleanor Roosevelt (public record), perhaps because she was a "spy" in the vein that Julia Child spied for FDR as a favor - but we have no evidence as to why these details occurred in the fashion they did. To speculate is only that - and we based our research on eyewitness reports.

16. If her plane was destroyed in 1944 as reported, burned on the airfield, because of its unique craftmanship, with a proper survey team (which we have the permits for) the plane, or a piece of it could be found on that airfield.  We are still actively trying to recover a piece of the plane from that field.  There are other artifacts that have been reported; a ring she gave an islander (we've tracked the location to a house leveled by hurricane) her flight jacket, the briefcase, a book of photographs found on Saipan during the war and turned over to Marine intelligence (one eyewitness) or even reports of her passport from the briefcase still in existence.

17.  As a wise person said to us; "it's not important how Amelia Earhart died. It's important how she lived." We are not trying to prove anything to anyone - we are just trying to document the truth of what really happened.  It would be wonderful if her plane was found elsewhere - it would mean that all of these people, the US Marines included, would have been inaccurate, wrong, deluded or making things up.  However, in our humble experience with Marines (team leader Mike Harris is one) we tend to shy away from calling Marines liars.  For our own health and safety.

We made this trip to find out the truth of what happened to Amelia Earhart. We happen to agree that the truth can set people free.  That for whatever reason she was executed for being a spy - whether she was or not a spy, she was executed as one - deserves to be known to honor her memory and her legacy.

These are the facts surrounding Amelia Earhart's final years, final days.  She sacrificed everything - but she is still a beacon for what one person could do, she is still a hero for what she accomplished in her short and amazing life.  And as a spiritual matter, she lives on in our hearts to inspire others around the world as a result of her life story. 

The Airfield, The 2nd Eyewitness, The One who started it all...

Greetings from the page dedicated to finding the truth about whether or not Amelia Earhart and her Electra were ever on Saipan...

Digging on the airfield.
Note the Japanese bunker in background

Digging has continued at Alsito Airfield.  It took us a long time, and we jumped through all the hoops, but Captain Cooper was able to put shovel to dirt so to speak, in an attempt to dig up one piece of an airplane.

Digging at Alsito airfield. Captain Cooper and Jerry Facey assisting. Photo by Robert Rustin

It's a long shot to be sure.  But the logic goes like this; we have a number of people who claim they saw Amelia Earhart incarcerated on Saipan.  New eyewitness testimony, never before published, filmed live on Saipan with the eyewitnesses themselves.  We have old eyewitness testimony, shot by filmmaker Mike Harris when he was here in the 1980's at the start of this story.  We have eyewitness testimony, some on camera, some on paper of US soldiers who claim they saw Earhart's Electra on Aslito airfield.  We have new eyewitnesses to that effect, that have never been published or interviewed before.

Hydraulic Fluid Level Indicator

What they claimed was fairly simple, if not puzzling.  They claim they found her plane intact in a hangar on the field on or about June 19th, 1944. They claim the plane was guarded by US Marines, and then after a couple of weeks, the Electra was flown around the airfield, near Naftan point.  Then they further claim that the plane was taken out on the runway, covered with gas, and torched by US forces. We have various eyewitnesses to this event, two on camera who tell their story from two different points of view, and a number of others in print who describe watching the plane burn.  We aren't looking for the why of these events, even though we are aware how startling they are.  We are focused on "then what?"

So what happened to the plane after it burned?

And does aluminum burn along with other plane parts?

Electra in a museum in Tucson, Arizona

And how to differentiate from the many other planes that were destroyed on Aslito airfield, including Japanese zeroes (made from an aluminum alloy) and the many US planes that burned or crashed there?

Our premise is this; the Electra was made of an unusual alloy of aluminum.  Each part of the plane was identified, or stamped, and x-rayed in Burbank after it was repaired from her first mission.  If there is a plane part to be found, it would not be rusted, it would not be filled with moss (as the lesser aluminum alloy of Zeroes are) and it would be identifiable by the part number stamped on it or from its x-ray image.

Under the Electra during her Last Flight

We're only looking for one piece.

However, the airfield is large - and what we need to do is use various different pieces of equipment that can differentiate between ferrous material and aluminum. We are focusing on areas where eyewitnesses claim they saw the plane burned. By that process of elimination we are hoping to find one piece of the Electra.

Again, we aren't making up the story that the plane burned at Aslito. We are following the eyewitness reports of over a dozen US Marines who claim to have seen it there, seen it fly, or seen it burned.  Its possible that in the subsequent years, every piece of the plane was dug up and used as scrap metal.  It's possible that the plane was removed entirely from the field.  But that's not likely - as we know it was destroyed on the runway, and the standard operating procedure is still the same for burning planes - to push it off the runway and bury it.

Double rivets on the engine. The propellers were unique as well.

Needless to say there's a number of options for where the plane is buried.  And we're going through them one by one.

Rivets on a piece of aluminum from a plane found near the field

On the eyewitness front, we have a new eyewitness who corroborates the story of Jack Salas, who claims that in 1944 he saw the American woman flyer in the back of a Japanese army truck, her arms bound and wearing a black bandana.  This new witness has come forward only because of our reporting what Jack Salas said - because he also was there in Chalan Kanoa and saw the very same truck, identifying her as Amelia Earhart.  He too said it appeared as if the Japanese were showing their prisoners off to the islanders for some reason.  He too said it was a big event to see the first caucasian woman ever - dressed not like a woman, but like a man.  Not something ever seen on Saipan, not something anyone might forget, despite the years since seeing her on that truck.

Jack Salas's story  of seeing Earhart for 30 minutes on the back of a truck
corroborated by another Saipanese islander yesterday

Also on the eyewitness front, we've been granted an interview with the woman who was the very first person to report seeing Amelia Earhart on Saipan.  We are going to interview her in her home in a couple of weeks, and she has more of her story to impart.  Merely from a historic perspective, no one has taken the time to put this woman on camera to hear her story first hand.  And it's been 70 years since she first told it.  Don't you think its about time to hear her in her own words?

We do.

Thanks for tuning in....

Saipan Redux

Still pulling all of our sources together, as well as resources...

Mike Harris & Capt Cooper on site 1

Here's a shot of the airfield and one of our sites close to where US Marines said they saw the Electra burned.  We've done some test digs as well as examine the best method to find aluminum in a field full of ferrous material.  Note the bunker behind Mike, it's one of the original ones that have been there since prior to the War and mark the old airfield.

Test hole dug with help of HPO

Typical pieces found in the grass

There's bedrock in some places, about six feet down.  However, between the surface and the bedrock we've found a number of pieces of metal.

Escolastica's son

Escolastica's son helped us track down an old cemetery. (apologies for not having your name in front of me! Thanks for coming to our talk as well) This cemetery has been moved for the most part, and most of the bodies were re-interred at the new cemetery.  However, Robert Wallack, one of our eyewitnesses, who found Earhart's briefcase in a safe in Saipan (confirmed by a number of Marines we've spoken to), told us about a cemetery that had a wrought iron fence around it.

Took us awhile, but we were able to locate it.  There are still some tombs that haven't been moved, perhaps the family members didn't get a chance to do so.  But their resting area is in a beautiful patch of bamboo.  This is the cemetery where Robert Wallack was told by a local woman that "An american woman flyer and another American man were buried."  Wallack told me about it in his interview, and he also pointed out that "It was different than the one that a local native had told Tom Devine about."  He found it odd that two islanders would point to two different cemeteries.

This could be because two other flyers were executed just prior to the War's start - they were captured in early 44 and held in the Garapan prison.  It could be because a person heard the story from someone else and got the wrong cemetery.  It could be that the bodies of Earhart and Noonan were recovered as reported in "The Stars and Stripes" in 1944. We know of at least three different cemeteries where she and Fred Noonan might have been buried.  But here's the one I told Robert Wallack I would find for him:

Old Garapan cemetery

Some of the crosses were bare, but others had names on them:

Old cemetery

Rich went off to Tokyo to scour the military archives.  Along with an interpreter, he was shown records from every Japanese prison from 1937 to 1945.  Both he and the librarian were surprised to learn that the records from Saipan had never arrived.  The librarian thought that might be perhaps they were never returned by the US after the war.  Of course, we've learned from our search of the US National archives that those records never made it to Washington either.  So despite a wealth of detailed prison information - somehow the records on Saipan seem to have disappeared into thin air.  Or have they?

In the heart of Tokyo, the Japanese Imperial Palace looms large.

The Japanese Imperial Palace looms in the background

Meanwhile, there are flights that leave from Tokyo to Saipan every day filled with tourists from Korea, Japan, China and Vladivostok in Russia.  After all, it's US soil - and who wouldn't want a little vacation time on US soil? Great shopping, great beaches, wonderful friendly natives, and a wealth of secrets.

Delta flights to Saipan from Tokyo

Meanwhile, one more sunset from the beach in front of the Hyatt hotel in Garapan.  Calling to us to continue our search, as the secrets of Saipan have yet to be revealed.  Stay tuned....

The shores of Garapan