Wayne Green the former publisher and editor of several successful radio and computer magazine,as well as a WW2 submarine veteran, insisted long ago that:
Amelia Earhart was spying(observing their island bases and ships) on the Japs for Roosevelt and the U.S. of A., and that she didn’t understand radio well so did not have the proper antenna on the plane for long distance, was a bit too sure of herself as was Noonan, and that when mischance brought the plane down, the Japanese found them and shortly execyted both as spies.
Remember the Japanese military view of non-Japanese was such were hardly human. Bataan Death March wasn’t a fluke and the wonder is America didn’t drop a couple MORE A-bombs just to make a statement.
Or, assuming the Japanese didn’t find her, she could have very well went out to sea herself, when she was near death.
In the book, “Flyboys” Bradley tells of a Japanese Major eating the liver of one of the American pilots that was shot down over ChiChi Jima. No doubt Amelia was a tasty morsel.