The photo behind the theory Amelia Earhart was a Japanese prisoner has been debunked
THE idea that pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by the Japanese has been discredited after a closer look at the fuzzy photograph behind the explosive claim.
THE idea that pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by the Japanese has been discredited after a closer look at the fuzzy photograph behind the explosive claim.
A History Channel documentary, Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence makes much of a seemingly suspicious US Naval intelligence photo of a pre World War II Pacific harbour.
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Among the tiny figures is one which appears to be a short-haired woman — Earhart — sitting despondently on a pier looking towards a Japanese transport ship with what could have been a wrecked aircraft attached to its stern. A nearby man, apparently with a receding hairline, was postulated to be her co-pilot, Fred Noonan.
The story, while enticing, cannot be true.
A Japanese military history blogger was inspired by the idea. But he decided to run some checks of his own.
Kota Yamano noted: “The steam ship on the right of the photo is a Japanese navy survey ship “IJN Koshu’’. The ship participated in search missions for Amelia and arrived Jaluit Atoll in 1937, but the ship also arrived there sometimes since 1935.”
So he visited the Japanese national library to search the scant details contained on the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) caption attached to the undated image.
His search quickly produced a book with the picture published inside.
Turns out the photo was taken two years before the Earhart and Noonan failed to find a refuelling stop on their groundbreaking flight from Australia to the United States.
It was printed in a Japanese travelogue “The Beauty of the Sea”, published on October 10 — 1935.
Instead of showing Earhart, Noonan and the wreck of their aircraft, the photo actually shows participants in a local schooner race.
“The photo was the 10th item that came up,” Yamano told The Guardian. “I find it strange that the documentary makers didn’t confirm the date of the photograph or the publication in which it originally appeared. That’s the first thing they should have done.”
The image may have been copied by the ONI a it could potentially have revealed details about Japanese harbour facilities.
The debunking of the photo cuts deep into the conspiracy theory presented by The History Channel, that Earhart was possibly the first ‘victim’ of World War II.
It argues she and Noonan died in prison because they may have seen Japanese war preparations on the mid Pacific Islands.
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