On the day the seaplane arrived at Saipan, eleven-year-old Josephine Blanco was walking to Tanapag Harbor to deliver lunch to her brother-in-law, J. Y. Matsumoto. Tanapag Harbor was bustling with activity overseen by the Japanese military and oriented toward improving the docking facilities for larger ships.
According to Blanco, as she approached the harbor she heard the sound of an airplane and looked up to see a twin-engine craft aiming for a landing in the harbor. Since the Electra had been transported to Saipan aboard the Kosyu, Blanco was mistaken in her identity of the aircraft and confusing another craft with Earhart’s plane. Several minutes later when she finally located her brother-in-law, he told her to come with him to see the “American woman.”
The two soon joined a throng of onlookers where they observed an American woman wearing trousers and a shirt similar to a man’s. The man wore a short-sleeved shirt. The two Americans, according to Blanco, appeared quite sick; their faces were drained of color and they looked drawn and stressed. Following a short glimpse of the captives, Blanco and Matsumoto watched as the pair was led away by soldiers. Blanco was convinced they were on their way to be executed. The two were, in fact, eventually transported to the Garapan prison, where they were incarcerated.
Earhart and Noonan were first taken to a three-story building named the Hotel Kobayashi Royokan, which had been commandeered to serve as headquarters for Japanese officers and administration. The hotel was owned by a Japanese family named Kobayashi (also spelled Kobayi in some references) who had settled on the island years earlier. Following a round of questions and paperwork, the two prisoners were separated and transferred to the nearby prison.
Ramon Cabrera, who worked as a guard at the prison, told an interviewer that he remembered Earhart and Noonan well and that he was present when they were first brought to their cells. Both had been blindfolded, and their hands were tied behind their backs. At the time, Cabrera thought Earhart was a young-looking man. Jesus Salas, a prisoner at Garapan, also recalled seeing Earhart and Noonan, but only once.
A witness interviewed by author Fred Goerner—Joaquina Cabrera—stated she had seen “a white lady and a man” being held prisoner in the Kobayashi Royokan Hotel in Garapan. She claimed the man was “taken away” and that the woman “was dead of disease.”
In a 1970 interview, Michiko Segura, the daughter of the Garapan chief of police, told the story that Japanese military police shot Amelia Earhart as a spy in 1937. Segura was eleven years old when she heard soldiers describing the execution to her father.
In 1961, José Pangelinan told interviewer Fred Goerner of seeing an American man and woman on Saipan, but never together. The man, he said was held in the prison, and the woman resided “at the hotel in Garapan.” Pangelinan claimed the man was beheaded and the woman died of dysentery. He admitted he was an eyewitness to neither of the two events.
Grigorio Camacho, a brother-in-law of Josephine Blanco, was interviewed years later. At the time of the interview he was a retired judge. He stated that Noonan resisted his captors. He also said that at the time Saipan was occupied by the Japanese, it was expected of the families of prisoners to provide them nourishment. As a result, Earhart and Noonan, he claimed, were fed little but watery soup. Both became ill with dysentery.
Camacho stated that Noonan, angered at his treatment by the Japanese, went into a rage one afternoon and threw his bowl of soup in the face of his guard. Camacho said the navigator was taken some distance from the prison and executed.
Earhart was regularly walked from her cell at the prison to the administration offices in the hotel for questioning. During these transfers, Earhart was often seen by the native Saipanese. Matilda Fausto Arriola, during an interview, recalled that her family gave Earhart fresh fruit because they suspected she was suffering from dysentery. Arriola stated that the “white woman” was a brunette and her hair was cut short like a man’s. Arriola also said that the woman gave her sister a “gold ring with a white stone.”
Ana Villagomez Benevente worked as a maid at the administration building and was given the job of washing the woman’s clothes. Benevente said that she often saw the woman seated on one of the verandas of the upper floors. She said the woman had short, wavy hair.
Benevente also saw the woman “at least three times” at the Garapan prison, where she often went to visit her brother. She was unable to get close to the woman because of the ever-present guards.
Another Saipanese woman, Maria Roberta de la Cruz, said she was informed that the two flyers were Americans and had crash-landed near an island to the south. A Catholic nun who resided on the island recalled that she was told that the woman was caught for spying and that her name was Amelia.
Concepcion Diáz, an early owner of the Kobayashi Royokan Hotel, related that a woman matching Earhart’s description had been imprisoned there by the Japanese from some time in 1937 until she died in 1938.
Father Sylvan Conover, a Catholic priest assigned to Saipan, took the story of an elderly female resident of the island who stated she saw “a white woman being transported from Aslito Field in the sidecar of a Japanese motorcycle.” An accompanying motorcycle transported in its sidecar a “white man with a large bandage around his head.” Both had their hands tied and were clearly prisoners.
In 1937, a seven-year-old Saipanese named Anna Magofo watched two Japanese soldiers guarding a white man “with a big nose” and a white woman while they were digging a hole just outside the cemetery near Garapan City. When interviewed as an adult, Magofo claimed the man was then blindfolded, beheaded, and placed in the hole. Magofo led a group of Earhart researchers to the spot she was convinced was the grave. When it was excavated, found among the debris were a three-tooth gold dental bridge and a number of bone fragments. Later, an anthropologist determined that the bones had belonged to “a female, probably white individual, between . . . forty and forty-two [years of age].” Other bones found belonged to a male. No evidence was ever produced to suggest it was Amelia Earhart and/or Fred Noonan interred in the grave.
By mid-1938, word had spread throughout the city of Garapan that the white woman prisoner had died of dysentery. The rumor was never substantiated, and proof of her demise was never forthcoming.
Two Saipan women—Florence Kirby and Olympio Borja—related a story they heard from a farmer who had an odd experience. As he was retrieving a cow that was tethered at the end of his pasture, the farmer saw several Japanese soldiers marching a man and a woman toward the Garapan cemetery. The prisoners, he said, had their hands tied behind their backs, were wearing khaki uniforms, and had bags tied over their heads. Their exposed skin suggested they were white. On seeing the Japanese, the farmer, fearful of being spotted by the soldiers, ducked out of sight and remained hidden for several hours. He was convinced, he said, that the Japanese executed the two prisoners.
A short time later, a Japanese policeman who was dining with his thirteen-year-old daughter was interrupted by several other Japanese police officers who boasted of killing two Americans—a man and a woman.
Kirby and Borja also related that their grandfather, who was a prisoner at Garapan, occupied a cell near the one “occupied by the American lady pilot.” For years, when tourists visited Saipan, they were directed toward the prison where they could see Amelia Earhart’s cell.
When American soldiers invaded Saipan in 1944, a number of photographs of Amelia Earhart were found. Ralph R. Kanna, a soldier from Johnson City, New York, found a photograph of Earhart standing beside a Japanese airplane. Kanna gave the photograph to an intelligence officer. Another soldier—Robert Kinley from Norfolk, Virginia—came upon a photograph of Earhart standing next to a Japanese officer. The background in the photograph contained landmarks sufficient to indicate it was taken on the island of Saipan.
Corporal Harry Weiser came across a photograph of Earhart in a Saipan house he inspected. It was subsequently identified as one of a quantity she carried with her for publicity purposes.
In
addition to the above, numerous other reports, as well as rumors, exist pertaining to Earhart-related possessions and other evidence. Most, if not all, of these items were turned over to military authorities, where they subsequently disappeared or were classified as top secret by the U.S. government. None of the alleged photographs of Earhart found on the island of Saipan, and there were several, have ever surfaced.
Following the U.S. military occupation of Saipan, a number of rumors arose relative to the notion that the U.S. Marines were led by natives to a place where Earhart and Noonan had been buried. Under orders, the rumors continued, the marines dug up the remains and had them shipped to the United States. The U.S. Marine Corps denied any involvement in such activity. When questioned, Japanese authorities denied that Earhart and Noonan ever fell into their hands.
The question has been raised: Why would the Japanese not simply return Earhart and Noonan to the American authorities? To do so would have generated goodwill. During this time, however, the Japanese activity relative to establishing military bases, airfields, ports, and other activities pertinent to their plans to gain control of the Pacific were done in secrecy. The last thing they wanted the rest of the world to know was what they were up to. If Earhart and Noonan had seen such military installations and reported on them, then Japan’s secret military preparations would have been exposed.
• 27 •The Mystery Letter
An odd event occurred almost five months after Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Pacific, one that has never been explained and that perplexes researchers to this day. It represents one more mystery in what would come to be a growing number of unsolved and perplexing enigmas revolving around the Earhart disappearance.
On November 27, 1937, an unclaimed letter in the Jaluit post office in the Marshall Islands came to the attention of a man named Carl Heine. Heine was a German missionary and an occasional special correspondent for a variety of publication outlets. The address on the letter was:
Amelia Earhart (Putnam)
Marshall Islands (Japanese)
Radak Group, Maleolap Island (10)
South Pacific Ocean
In the upper left hand corner where a return address is customarily located was printed:
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
Hollywood, California
The postal date stamp contained the information “Los Angeles, California” along with the date October 7, 10:00 p.m. Written across one corner of the envelope were the words “Deliver Promptly.” The back of the envelope contained the word “Incognito” that was hand-printed in small letters with a very fine touch, decidedly feminine. The letter was unopened.
This envelope is immediately curious due to the fact that virtually everyone in the world, and in particular in the United States, was aware that Amelia Earhart was listed by the U.S. government as having perished when, as it claimed, her plane went down somewhere near Howland Island. The reported crashing and sinking of the Electra occurred just over three months prior to the date on the envelope.
Questions that must be asked include: How did the sender know that Earhart had, in fact, been transported to Jaluit Island? Maleolap is a neighboring island and may have been where mail was sent. And, importantly, who sent the letter?
What is known is that Earhart’s personal secretary, Margo DeCarie, was residing in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during the months of September and October in 1937. Did DeCarie know something of the whereabouts of Earhart that was unknown to the U.S. government and the general public? Or perhaps it was information kept under wraps by the government. And if so, how would DeCarie have obtained knowledge of Earhart’s stay, however temporary it might have been, on Jaluit?
The number 10 found on the address is baffling. Some researchers have attempted to link the number with the name of the aircraft piloted by Earhart; the Electra was formally known as the Lockheed 10.
What became of the mysterious letter has never been learned. If it had ever been opened and the contents examined, that information was never made available.
• 28 •Death or Transfer?
Over time, an abundance of evidence surfaced that suggested Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan had been incarcerated on the island of Saipan. A handful of unverified accounts allude to the notion that they may have been executed. On July 2, 1960, the San Francisco Chronicle carried an article claiming “the famed aviatrix and her navigator . . . crash-landed in Saipan Bay in July, 1937, and were executed by the Japanese.” This information was provided by KCBS radio personality turned Earhart researcher Fred Goerner. While initially generating some interest and attention, public interest soon faded when it became clear that Goerner’s hypothesis had little to no credibility. Goerner’s “proof” of his statements consisted of “rusty parts of a pre-war plane and recorded conversations with natives.” The ultimate truth, however, was that the evidence presented for the existence of the Electra consisted solely of a “coral-coated generator skin divers hauled up from the depths of Saipan Bay.”
On July 6, the Chronicle, in a front-page article, proclaimed that “Japanese photographs and the affidavits of 72 witnesses prove that Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were executed on Japanese-held Saipan island in 1937.” Earhart researcher Paul Briand informed interviewers that the graves of Earhart and Noonan had been located. Briand made this statement based entirely on what turned out to be insufficient evidence. In short, it was only his opinion that the graves had been found. From all appearances, Briand’s conclusion was more the result of wishful thinking than actual research and investigation.
A short time later, former Japanese Imperial Navy captain Zenshiro Hoshina responded to the article from his home in Tokyo stating that the published articles were in error. He said, “No such execution could have taken place without my knowledge and approval.” He added that the governor of Saipan would never have undertaken the executions of Americans without authorization from Tokyo and that it never happened.
As it turned out, the information presented in the July 6 article was deemed false. Air Force officer Joe Gervais conceded that photographs he possessed were “not really proof of Miss Earhart’s execution.” Further, he also admitted that the “72 affidavits that allegedly proved Earhart and Noonan were executed by the Japanese did not actually describe any executions.” They were, Gervais explained, only “72 names of people living today on Saipan and Guam who claimed to have information on the subject.”
Then, on July 9, the Chronicle reported that the generator Fred Goerner claimed came from Earhart’s Electra was bogus. According to an official of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, the company that manufactured the generator for the Electra, the one located by Goerner had been made by a Japanese firm in Osaka. In fact, this was the second generator Goerner claimed belonged to the Electra. It was beginning to appear as though Goerner was fabricating evidence designed to make him appear as a dogged, competent, and successful researcher when, in fact, he was not.
In the final analysis, there exists no credible evidence and no support that Earhart or Noonan crash-landed at Saipan or had been executed on that island. There does, however, exist a body of compelling evidence indicating that they were transported to Saipan from where the Electra came down in the Marshall Islands and that they were held prisoner there for a time. Though stories abound relative to the executions and interment of Earhart and Noonan on Saipan, not a single shred of credible information has ever surfaced to suggest that these executions ever occurred.
The truth is, no one ever saw the corpse of anyone positively identified as either Earhart or Noonan. Sites alleged by some to be the graves of one or both of the Americans have been dug up. In some cases nothing was ever found, and in other cases bones were encountered, but, despite claims to the contrary, none were ever identified as having belonged to Earhart or Noonan.
What, then, became of the prisoners? The most reliable evidence suggests that after a period of incarceration on Saipan, they were transferred to Tokyo and then on
to a prison camp in China.
Earhart’s presence in Tokyo is controversial and oft debated. In 1972, then secretary of state James Baker confirmed the existence of a State Department file titled “Amelia Earhart: Special War Problems.” According to information obtained, the file reveals that Earhart, while a prisoner of Japan, might have participated in that nation’s development and construction of aircraft. According to the report, Earhart may have been involved in testflying aircraft and participating in wind tunnel experiments. The report also describes that Earhart had filed for Japanese “naturalization” in August 1939. When pressed, Secretary Baker refused to explain why such a file existed at all for someone who, according to the government, “disappeared without a trace” in 1937.
Arthur DeWayne Gibson, an archivist for the U.S. State Department, found a letter in departmental files dated August 1939 that stated: “Mrs. Putnam wishes the United States Government to henceforth consider her a National of the Nipponese Imperial Islands.”
Gibson also encountered other Earhart-related documents in the secret files. One mentioned that the aviatrix was involved in aircraft design and testing in Tokyo during the year 1939. She was working closely with famous Japanese airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi. During a period of research, it was discovered that Earhart had met Horikoshi years earlier in Long Island, New York, during the time he was visiting the Curtiss-Wright aircraft factory there.
Gibson also found a reference to the notion that by 1939, Earhart could speak fluent Japanese. In addition, the files yielded a photograph of Earhart standing next to a Japanese prototype fighter plane that had been designed and tested around 1939 but never placed into mass production.
Amelia Earhart Page 12
