I watched the program and while it was inconclusive I am struck by the lack of comment about the plane being towed on the barge as a deciding factor. Why would any plane be being towed as in the picture? And the picture is not clear enough for me to ascertain if it was, indeed, a Lockheed Electra. Because the plane was cut off of the picture making the rounds on the internet we are left with a facial recognition/biomarkers argument versus a Japanese blogger that provides “evidence” absolving the Japanese from one more war atrocity. All parties have a dog in this fight while the general public is left to decide who they want to believe.
a total tangent, and I know hindsight is easy, but I've always wondered why they didn't divide that hop into 2-3 segments instead of trying to hit an island so close to the outer limit of their range.... I know it's easy to say in retrospect, but they just did not think clearly about how difficult it might be to hit an island target in the midst of the vast Pacific given the technology and conditions they worked with.... there were not many options to put down short of Howland Island, but I'd bet there were at least a couple of islands with a tiny airstrip and a bit of fuel because of island plantations and company operations....they would have had a lot more fuel reserve if they were seeking to land after a shorter flight (in the Gilberts for instance).....they gambled their lives on being able to hit a tiny speck in a vast ocean, without a lot of fuel reserve, when they might have done a couple of shorter hops along the way. I suspect they just reflexively picked the most distant island they though they could reach that had an airstrip, and didn't think enough about the possible consequences of being off course, clouds or bad weather, low on fuel, etc. As it was they had mainly good weather, but still may have had a problem with cloud cover and visibility. I know, I know, hindsight.
