Daily Mail art Amelia Earhart and Japanese

[dirtysidedown430]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... atoll.html

[SaxMan]

I would tend to doubt this theory. Japan was not at war with the United States in 1937, although relations were strained. It would have been a very significant propaganda coup for the Japanese had they been able to find and rescue Earhart and Noonan, especially considering the extensive effort put in by the U.S. Navy in trying to locate them. The Japanese would have no reason to keep Earhart and Noonan as prisoners.

It would have been just as easy for the U.S. Navy to "accidentally" overfly the Marshall Islands than it would be to have Earhart and Noonan scout it out for them.

[JohnB]

The Japanese have long said they don't have any records of her being held either on Mili Atoll or PNG (sites of two competing theories with the same outcome, AE and Fred being captured by the Japanese).

I don't have a favorite AE/FN theory, but allow me to point out Japanese relations with the US weren't that bad in mid-1937 (i.e. several months before the Nanjing Massacre and the sinking of the USS Panay) but there were tensions. Relations were not terrible at the time and not as bad as they would be in a couple of years (but keep in mind US-Japanese relations were still pretty civil throughout most of 1941).

If the Japanese did find/rescue a famous flier, wouldn't it have ben in their best interests to give her back to the US and score some needed PR points?


If they did hold and eventually execute her, I'm not sure they'd still lie about it. After all, the Japanese government has admitted to much worse war crimes (though some say parts of their government and population don't seem too ashamed by them), so why not come clean now?

And as far as some political conspiracy....AE was a huge celebrity, friends with FDR and said to be the girlfriend of Gene Vidal, an administration official. If the Americans found out what happened to her during or just after the war, why would the White House hide what happened to her? After all, we were (or had recently) bombing them, I don't think anyone was worried about hurting their feelings.

[PinecastleAAF]

Even if the Japanese had captured her they would have released her once her jar of freckle cream was empty.

[JimW]

You have to remember to take ANYTHING written about aviation, or TBH anything written about anything at all, in the Daily Fail with a huge pinch of salt. It is a dreadful rag with few journalistic standards which will sensationalise anything to get views on it's website.

[dirtysidedown430]

Never believe anything you hear and only half of what you read. Mark Twain

[JohnB]

You have to remember to take ANYTHING written about aviation, or TBH anything written about anything at all, in the Daily Fail with a huge pinch of salt. It is a dreadful rag with few journalistic standards which will sensationalise anything to get views on it's website.

Come on, you can't accuse the Daily Mail of making up AE alternative theories or conspiracies.
They began the day after she disappeared.

In this case, they're just reporting what some people believe.

[JimW]

JohnB

I didn't even bother to read the article in question, knowing how it was likely to have been written, so I am not accusing them directly of conspiracy theories. It is their usual MO to take sensational copy from other sources and print without a great deal of editing.

The Dail Fail is a paper that panders to the lowest common denominator - it's intellectually challenged reader base- who tend to be right wing, old and white. It hates everything and everyone it seems if you do bother to read any of the articles.

The only thing that the paper has done worthy of any praise in the past 20 years was the campaign to get the killers of Stephen Lawrence behind bars.