Posted on 08/18/2002 3:39:33 PM PDT by Hellmouth
I sure ain't no spring chicken.
On the other hand, that allows me to truthfully say that I once saw Amelia Earhart in person.
And she didn't look hardly at all like a Jap spy. Kinda boyish looking, with her hair cut short, but not like a Jap.
It sounds plausible for the era and political situation at the time.
They (the military) could have spun it: that she had been captured by the Japs, her navigator had died of injuries sustained in the plane crash, and Amelia was a POW in China during the war. Earhart could have returned to the country as a hero, and no one (who really needed to know) would be all the wiser.
Plus even if she did help the Japanese, there were extenuating circumstances. Her life was at stake, she was in shock, she's a women, etc. I think people would probably have forgiven her.`
It was a romanticist`era and the love and affection people had for this (second rate pilot IMO) was amazing.
On the other hand, we were executing Japanese sympathizers. Secrets were easier to keep and the press was not a in your face business. The news lag was about a week to 10 days and not 5 minutes it is today.
It is likely that they felt it was the easiest thing to do
This version of events only emerged after the discovery in 1988 of a clutch of documents relating to the 1940 discovery of a skeleton on the island, believed to be that of a woman, by a British Colonial Service officer.
So which is it?
No, it's a way to sell movie tickets. This guy thinks he's Oliver Stone.
I'm sure America will fall for it, and the press will cover it extensively. Fortunately, it's entirely possible that conclusive proof will be uncovered shortly which will prove that this is a lie and a scam. I hope so.
Earhardt was a pretty brave chick, and she doesn't deserve to be cast as a traitor.
From what little I've read of the matter, the consensus seems to favor a slight navigation error, made worse by upper level winds: the sort of thing that sometimes happened to military aircraft during that era..and well up into the WWII era.
Yes, there is a really numerous evidence exists that supports a theory that Earhart may have been captured by Japanese and probably to die in captivity.
But the concept of THIS movie - as it is described here, displaying her as a traitor - is a complete absurd, based on rumors and fabricated stories factually debunked since long ago.
There is absolutely no factual evidence exists that supports this ridiculous stuff; on the contrary, there is a lot of a firm factual arguments proving that something like this never could happen.
Earhart was a really good pilot, who was not a "media created celebrity" but a real record breaker who really set her records. No "media machine" may help you if you are alone over the ocean in an unreliable plane in the night. You can do it - or you can't. She could and did, let's not forget about this.
But she was NOT an aircraft designer, not a radio expert, not a test pilot and not a military pilot.
She simply never had any kind of technical information to help Japanese in any way, even if she would want. Especially in 40s - several years after she could been captured. Even if she would have such a knoweledge - just conditionally - the development of aviation in late 30s was so quick that after very short time after her capture in 1937 all that she WOULD know would became obsolate and useless, and very quickly.
Also, there is absolutely NO any real evidence or any real base to suspect that she would agree to be a traitor - at any conditions. The personal character of Earhart is a not a matter of speculations. It is a matter of credible historical records and numerous and independent evidence. She was simply not such a kind of person who can be a traitor. She had a very certain "sense of the mission" as backbone of her spirit, and for such a person a treason is an absolute MORAL suicide - an obviously impossible thing. Such a people preferes rather to die than to live in infamy - just another type of psychology.
Despite popular beliefs, the history of a Japanese aviation is not a mystery since long ago. A lot of information and authentic documents, records, photos etc. was declassified and published openly since 40s, about all the Japanese wartime and prewar planes and their development and technical history.
Absolutely no evidence supporting the wartime "folklore rumors" - connecting this stuff with Earhart in any way - was ever found.
It will be extremely sad if this movie will be done in such a way as it is described here. In fact, it would mean an attempt to tarnish baselessly a reputation of deservred and innocent person, to confuse and misinform people around the world and poison their mind by a slander, morally unfair and factually incorrect misinformation.
Respectfully submitted -
Alex V.Mandel, Ph. D (aviation and naval historian, Amelia Earhart historian for 22 years)
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Note: this topic is dated 8/18/2002. |
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Just a an hour or two ago someone was going on about how Fletcher Christian from Mutiny on the Bounty fame made his way back to England from Pitcairn Island and lived there incognito. And there are all those stories about Billy the Kid living to a ripe old age somewhere out west. It seems that the more legendary the historical figure and as long as their is a little doubt about the certainty of their death there are always tales of them living out their days in the equivalent of the Witness Protection Program.
Basically these stories always surface and they make for a good read or listen.
>>”Yes, there is a really numerous evidence exists that supports a theory that Earhart may have been captured by Japanese...”
Any military or diplomatic orders asking her to do intel work should be available to research at this point. For some reason, a few years back, the gay community saw her as one of theirs beyond the mere feminist aspect.
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