Posted on 03/30/2005 5:30:14 AM PST by bloggodocio
AGENCIES , SAIPAN, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005
An old Japanese jail in the Northern Mariana Islands is to be excavated in an effort to end decades of speculation about the disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart, officials here said yesterday.
Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan are believed to have been detained in 1937 in the jail which is now a Saipan tourist site.
They were last heard from on July 3 that year when they radioed that they were running low on fuel while Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world.
"In the past there had been rumors that Amelia Earhart's plane was shot down and she was held captive by her Japanese captors on suspicion that she was a spy. Later she was burned and buried at the back of the jail," Historic Preservation Office (HPO) director Epiphanio Cabrera said.
The Northern Marianas, a chain of 17 islands about 2,400km south of Tokyo, was administered by Japan from 1914 to 1944 and is now a US territory.
Cabrera said the excavation, which he hopes will unlock the mystery surrounding Earhart's disappearance, is expected to be under way by September.
A year after the Earhart disappeared, a French consul sent a telegram to the US State Department, claiming she was a prisoner on Saipan, and some locals still insist she died in captivity and was buried on the island.
"We will just do proper research on this to close the gap within the rumors. To my knowledge, there hasn't much research and excavation in the area," Cabrera said.
Ping
This has always been an interesting subject for me. My Dad did alot of traipsing around on Saipan when we live on Guam between 1963 to 1967. Some of the pictures he brought back from there were interesting. Old Jap pill boxes and even one of a Betty bomber that had crashed in the boonies.
Ya, when I visit my wife's family in Taiwan, I always find it interesting to see the old pillboxes lining the coast. In Yang Ming Shan (SIC?) Mountain National Park above Taipei, there is a huge network of tunnels and pillboxes on the ridgelines overlooking the city. It's very surreal to see such stark reminders among the quiet of tropical beaches and mountains.
I never got the whole Amelia Erhardt thing. Did she have a death wish? From the photos I saw of her it was likely that not too many guys kept her distracted.
"Did she have a death wish?"
Unlike Charles Lindburgh, I believe "Lady Lindy" felt many pressures (from both her publisher husband and her own competitiveness) to always be on the top of the heap. Famous last words: "Watch this!"
You must have seen the wrong photos.. maybe you're thinking of Eleanor Roosevelt.. ??
Amelia Earhart was a strikingly beautiful woman when she was younger, and was still good looking ( in a "handsome, tom-boyish way" ) well into her mid- thirties..
The things that might have kept "some" guys away were her intelligence, drive to excel, competitive spirit, successfull life, international aclaim, and maybe her powerful need to be treated as equal to any male..
She then attempted something which could have killed even the most exceptional flyers. There have been rumors for years that she was on a spying mission for the US government (they even made a biographical film back in the 40's which portrayed that as fact) but the chances are her navigational and flying skills were not up to crossing the Pacific by locating and refueling at the fly speck size Howland Island, which was her destination that day.
We lived in Japan 1951-1961 and there were still many wartime caves in the sandstone bluffs around Yokohama. Our maid, Masako, told us she worked as a little girl in a munitions plant while the caves were being dug. When the plant was hit by bombs, they moved the surviving machinery inside one of the caves. Ten years later, my pals and I played in those caves.
Doesn't piloting and navigating require math skills?
She was married, but I've always wondered if she were alive today if she wouldn't have a female "traveling companion."
I think that one has been pretty much dismissed. There are still persistent rumors she was captured. On the othe hand, her last radio calls reported being low on fuel and lost. The most likely scenario is a crash at sea. It's interesting to pursue these leads that she might have been buried by the japanese, but I doubt this will turn up anything. This is the umpteenth time someone has excavated a site looking for her remains.
I'm sure it does.
I've read and heard that in terms of raw flying skills Earhart was very good but not great. That had nothing at all to do with her gender and if I gave the impression I felt it did then I hope this clarifies the matter. But, her enduring fame and mystique is certainly based on the fact that she was a very beautiful and photogenic woman as well as a very "good" pilot.
Unlike you, of course.
I also think the rumors that she was on some "secret mission to find out what the Japs are up to" is tin foil hat territory but like any legend it probably won't go away until wreckage and/or a body are found, which will probably be never. Lots of pilots have gotten lost and crashed under circumstances a great deal less demanding than the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A year after the Earhart disappeared, a French consul sent a telegram to the US State Department, claiming she was a prisoner on Saipan
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