Fine, I can understand them keeping it quiet DURING THE WAR and for some time thereafter. But this occurred 80 friggin’ years ago, we are not at war with Japan, there is nothing strategic that could be revealed, and the maintenance of secrecy over such history makes no sense.
I agree, which is why this is a fascinating story. Hope they find out what really happened. Can you imagine a file found, and bodies/plane returned to US? Wow. What a story.
I don’t know if this is legit or not and it doesn’t much matter any more but why not disclose that they knew about this for 80 years? Probably because if you start talking about stuff like this whatever shred of credibility the government may have left is gone because they’ve just outed themselves as confirmed liars. They won’t do that.
I recently read of an account by an American researcher in New Guinea who was looking for the wreckage of a US cargo aircraft that had disappeared during the war. He found, instead, the wreckage of a Mitsubushi A6M Zero fighter that had crashed in the jungle. The researcher found human remains and, as soon as he could, notified the Japanese government. There was enough left of the Zero do that the airframe and engine serial numbers could be read. Apparently the Japanese are as meticulous at record keeping as the germans because they had no trouble identifying the pilot and coming up with details concerning the Zero’s loss. If there were records involving Earhart and Noonan,, I’m sure thay would have turned up by now.