Does this photo prove Amelia Earhart SURVIVED crash landing but was then captured by the Japanese? Investigator says new image 'shows her boarding ship on Pacific island' AFTER she vanished

For those who knew where to look, the truth about Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan was known long ago. It’s summarised at pages 357-363 (2nd ed.) of Spyhunter, but I was building on earlier research by Fred Goerner, Captain Randall Brink and others. US Marines dug up their bodies on Saipan in 1944, at which point Admiral King ordered ONI to go into cover-up mode. King, who was of course a German agent, knew full well that Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had been shot down and captured by the Japanese.

The Newly Released Photograph

I have not been involved in the NBC program, although I would not be surprised if my summary of the facts in Spyhunter turns out to have prompted the rummage through the ONI archives. I have not therefore been shown an advance copy of the documentary, nor have I had an opportunity to study the photo under glass. I’ve used zoom of course, but the published copies quickly lose detail under high zoom.

The ship looks like the IJN Koshu, one of the two Japanese auxiliaries I name in Spyhunter as being involved in the transfer of the Electra from Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands to Taroa in the same group, where she was stored at the airfield there. The USAAF photographed the Electra, minus an engine, in 1944. The NBC photo is NOT therefore the first published photo of the Electra after she was shot down.

NBC would not of course involve me, nor would they dare refer to Spyhunter. The book is simply too hot for them and covers too many no-go areas for a mainstream media organisation like NBC.

As explained I have not had a fair opportunity to study this photo. However it looks genuine and is consistent with what we know about the shoot-down. I understand that facial recognition software has confirmed that the white man in the photo is Lt-Cdr Fred Noonan. The young white woman has her back to the camera but her build and clothing are consistent with the gallant Major Earhart.

My preliminary analysis is that the photograph is probably genuine and shows the American flyers before they were transferred to Garapan prison on Saipan. The aircraft is probably their modified Lockheed Model 10 Electra.

Who Took The Photo?

HMS (NZ) Achilles

Spare a thought for the courageous American agent who took the photo. Everybody concentrates on what is ahead of the lens, i.e. depicted in the photo, not on what is behind the lens, i.e. the photographer.

ONI had already lost several agents in the Japanese Mandates by then. The man (it was probably a man) who took the photo was clearly doing so surreptitiously, hence the low angle. He must have known what was in store for him were he to be discovered.

ONI knew that Amelia and Fred had been shot down, as their Mayday messages, in both voice and Morse Code, had been intercepted in New Zealand, on board the great American aircraft carrier the USS Lexington (CV-2) and by the light cruiser HMS (NZ) Achilles, of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, which was racing to the rescue.

As I explain in Spyhunter, disgracefully, Amelia and Fred were left to swing in the wind. German assets in London and Washington hauled off the Good Guys. Achilles’ logs were tampered with, but MI18 had an asset on the Kiwi cruiser, a petty officer, so the cover-up failed.

Achilles was a fine ship by the way. She later performed splendidly in the Battle of the River Plate as part of Commodore Harwood’s gallant little squadron, which saw off our community partners’ pocket battleship KMS Graf Spee.

I hope that the long-dead agent who took that photo 80 years ago is named and honored. He was undoubtedly following an instruction from his ONI handler to get down to the docks as the Jap transport came in.

Time for the Japs to come clean

USS Lexington (CV-2)

The time has now come for Tokyo to ‘fess up. Like Watergate, the cover-up has become worse than the original crime, bad as it was. The executions by the Kempetai of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were brutal and a serious breach of international humanitarian law, even as understood in 1937. Amelia’s was particularly brutal.

The longer Tokyo hides its complicity the more the present Japanese government associates itself with the policies of General Tojo and the other war criminals who ran Japan in the 30s and 40s. At the moment, the Japanese government are acting as accessories after the fact to these appalling crimes. If they want to disassociate themselves from them and carry on selling Toyotas, they’d better start telling the truth.

Amelia and Fred weren’t the only fliers the Japs executed out of hand. There are many examples to choose from, but I have chosen to honor the Royal Australian Air Force’s only VC of World War II, Flight Lieutenant Bill Newton.

Flying a Douglas Boston with 22 Squadron RAAF over New Guinea on March 17th 1943, Bill Newton ditched his aircraft in heroic circumstances, trying to save wounded crew members who could not bale out. He was brutally beheaded on March 29th.

Next time you’re in a Jap car showroom with money to spend on a new vehicle, remember the fate of Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan and Bill Newton. Walk on to the nearest dealer in American or British cars. You’ll be driving away in a better product anyway!

Amelia’s mission

I’ve detailed Major Earhart’s mission (that’s right, she was a commissioned officer in the USAAC reserves) in Spyhunter. The Japs were fortifying their Mandated territories in the Pacific as part of the build-up for their planned war of aggression against America, Britain and the Netherlands.

The US Navy badly needed to know what facilities the Japs were building. The Lockheed Skunk Works (as they became known) at Burbank, CA, fitted Fairchild high-resolution cameras to a highly modified Model 10 Electra. Amelia skillfully crashed her existing Model 10, which lacked the speed and endurance of the new machine, on take-off, justifying a trip to see the boys at Lockheed.

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With CAB approval the registration numbers were swapped over. Amelia and Fred were instructed to fly west-east (their original plan called for east-west) over Truk in the Carolines and suspected Jap bases in the Marshalls. Their destination was Camden Island, where ONI officers were waiting to retrieve the precious film. The over-flight was sanctioned by President Roosevelt.

Roosevelt however did not know that the German Abwehr had heavily penetrated ONI. Their man Captain Ernest King betrayed the mission to Berlin, who in turn shopped it to their allies in Tokyo. The IJN lay in wait.

Poor Amelia and Fred were intercepted by Mitsubishi A5M Claudes, probably sortied from the carrier Akagi. She was officially in refit, but as I explain in Spyhunter there is a major discrepancy in her official history. There is no known photo of the Akagi in dry-dock in July ’37 and her refit took much longer than her half-sister Kaga.

The Claudes were under orders to force the Electra down if possible. Amelia seems to have lost her No 1 (port) engine, and with her plane on fire had no option but to ditch off Mili Atoll.

After being taken to Saipan, Fred threw faeces in the face of a Kempetai NCO, who then lost his rag and executed him. Amelia was shot some months later, on orders from Tokyo, by Fred’s open grave. The manner of her execution was designed to cause her maximum distress.

Since both bodies were recovered by the USMC, it should still be possible to retrieve them. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan should be honored with a state funeral, with a flypast by the USAF, USMC and US Navy.

• A new image appears to show Amelia Earhart preparing to board a boat in the Marshall Islands after she vanished from the sky in 1937
• The legendary aviatress was last heard from on July 2 of that year, noting the poor visibility and her declining gas levels in a series of transmissions that morning
• She was never seen or heard from again after her plane went down during her journey from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island, a distance of 2,556 miles
• The photograph, taken by a US spy working behind enemy lines, shows the pilot and navigator Fred Noonan along with the wreckage of Earhart's plane 
• This would mean that Earhart and Noonan were almost certainly taken captive and held as prisoners of war by the Japanese after surviving the crash 
• It also means that the government was aware that Earhart was taken captive, claims that will be explored this Sunday on the History special 'Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence'

A newly unearthed photograph suggests that Amelia Earhart did not perish at sea back on July 2, 1937, when the famed female aviator vanished from the sky after sending a number of troubling transmissions.

It has long been believed that poor visibility and low gas levels caused the plane to crash in the waters near Howland Island that day, claiming the lives of the 39-year-old pilot and her navigator Fred Noonan.

That theory is now being put to the test however as a result of this never-before-seen image that appears to show both Earhart and Noonan in the Marshall Islands, with a note on the image placing them at the Jaluit Atoll.

Earhart's plane can also be seen on the far right being dragged by a large ship. 

The image is believed to have been taken in 1937, the same year that Earhart went missing in the vicinity of the island chain. 

It is a bittersweet discovery however, as the photograph also confirms the long-held belief that Earhart was captured by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of war, this according to experts who will appear on the History special 'Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence,' airing this Sunday.

The Japanese government stated that they have no record of Earhart ever being a prisoner. 

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Mystery unlocked: A new image appears to show Amelia Earhart (sitting center) after she vanished from the sky in July of 1937

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West end girl: Earhart and Noonan stand out as the only two Westerners in the photo, which the government had stored away in their National Archive

In the image, Earhart has her back to the camera and is seen speaking to Noonan as they prepare to board a boat. 

The faces of the two cannot be seen, but their profiles do bear a striking similarity to the pair, who were close to finishing out their goal of circumnavigating the globe.

It is believed that the photographer was a US spy or emissary operating behind enemy lines in the Pacific.

He was later executed for committing treason according to reports. 

A facial recognition expert said that it is likely Earhart and Noonan in the photo, which was discovered in the National Archive by retired federal agent Les Kinney.

The authenticity of the photograph has also been confirmed by experts. 

What remains unclear however is how Earhart would have been able to crash land the plane and then get from her destination to the Jaluit Atoll, which is 1021 miles away from  Howland Island. 

That problem is solved however by a number of locals who claimed to have seen Earhart's plane when it crashed off the island nation.

She would have quickly been taken captive at that point along with Noonan, as Japan had begun to prohibit Westerners from entering their territories by that time. 

It has been a theory of many over the years that Earhart died on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands while being held by the Japanese.

The cause of death is believed to have been Malaria or dysentery, which claimed the American icon's life in 1939, just two years after she went missing over the Pacific. 

A lengthy file that allegedly described her actions in the Marshall Islands was also on file at the Office of Naval Investigations for years, until the close to 200-page report suddenly went missing - just like its subject matter. 

A brief description of the file does still exist, and hints that it contains some crucial information that could unlock the mystery of what happened to the aviatress once and for all.

One specific report, submitted on January 7, 1939, 'contains information that Earhart was a prisoner in the Marshall islands' according to a reference report in the National Archives. 

This photo would also confirm that the American government was not only aware that Earhart was alive but also that she had been captured by the Japanese.

It is unclear why they would have then chosen to keep this a secret, though the decision to not reveal that a national hero had been killed by the US's new ally after World War II likely made for a smoother transition during the peace process. 

Kinney believes that the photo was taken no later than 1943, as that is when the US began bombing the atoll where Earhart and Noonan can be seen in the photo. 

Rumors that Earhart had survived after crashing off the Marshall Islands first began to emerge over six decades ago based on eyewitness accounts from locals who claimed to see the distinct-looking visitor to the area.

That claim was given further credence just two years ago when Kinney discovered two metal fragments he determined were from Earhart's aircraft on the Mili Atoll.

The Mili Atoll is far smaller than the Jaluit mass and approximately 165 miles West, which would suggest this is where Earhart may have crash landed her plane that July morning before being taken to Jaluit.

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Tantalizing tandem: Earhart and Noonan had completed 22,000 miles of their 29,000 mile journey before taking off on what would be their last flight (pair above on June 11, 1937)

The X Files: A report that allegedly details Earhart's time in the Marshall Islands as a prisoner of the Japanese is detailed in a National Archive resource report (above), but has gone missing from the collection 

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Bathing beauties and a battered Brit: Earhart with her husband, George P. Putnam (left), and British aviators Jim and Amy Mollison on the beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey back in 1933.

The official US government version is that Earhart, 41 when she died, and Noonan, 44, ran out of fuel, crashed and died within 40 miles of Howland Island, possibly because of heavy weather in the area at the time.

At that time she also noted that she was having issues with visibility from the cockpit due to the clouds hanging over the Pacific Ocean that day.

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Amelia Hall: An unlikely fashion icon, Earhart rocked the suit and boot look with shortened tie decades before Diane Keaton made it famous with 'Annie Hall' in 1977

She was declared dead in absentia two years later on January 5, 1939, which is around the same time that Earhart is believed to have succumbed to illness while being held on Saipan. 

In the 80 years and three days since Earhart went missing, there have been countless reports and claims which allege to have definitive proof of just what happened to the fearless wingwoman. 

The other theory which has garnered a good deal of support comes from Ric Gillespie and The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR.

It is their belief that Earhart made an emergency landing on a flat stretch of coral reef known as Gardner Island, or Nikumaroro, southwest of Howland.

Millions have been raised in order to allow them to test this theory, and just last year they claimed to have possibly discovered the remains of Earhart on the island.

According to the Earhart Project, another group eager to prove the fate of America's first and foremost aviatress, 'there is a newly discovered similarity between Amelia Earhart and the castaway whose partial skeleton was found on Nikumaroro in 1940.

The bones, which were discovered by a person who immediately declared them to be Earhart’s remains, were initially dismissed by British authorities after a doctor judged them to be male.

They were then lost until TIGHAR discovered the original British files in 1998, including the skeletal measurements the doctor made.

Measurements supported the theory that the skeletal remains could be Earhart, and the team then enlisted forensic imaging specialist Jeff Glickman to analyze a picture of the pilot.

After identifying the correct points on the shoulder, elbow and wrist for comparing bone length, Jeff found that Earhart’s humerus to radius ratio was 0.76 – virtually identical to the castaway’s.

'The match does not, of course, prove that the castaway was Amelia Earhart but it is a significant new data point that tips the scales further in that direction,' the organization said at the time. 

In their latest venture to prove that Earhart perished on the island with Noonan, the group announced last month that they were bringing in bone-sniffing dogs to search the ares for remains. 

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Mad for plaid: Earhart was all smiles in March of 1937 (above) when she took off from Los Angeles on her planned circumnavigation of the globe

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Space jam: Rumors that Earhart had survived after crashing off the Marshall Islands first began to emerge over six decades ago based on eyewitness accounts from locals who claimed to see the distinct-looking visitor to the area

TIGHAR members - including engineers and archaeologists - also claimed to have found aluminium paneling fitting 1930s specifications, Plexiglas like that used in Earhart's plane, and ball bearings in the past.

The biggest find however may have been the  size 9 Cat's Paw heel dating from the 1930s, similar to that seen on Earhart's footwear in world flight photos.

But the plane itself is nowhere to be found - because, Gillespie says, it would have been pulled into the sea by the tide. 

Or, pulled to the Jaluit Atoll on the back of the boat just like in the photo. 

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Amelia's Baby: Earhart's short-do and ivory complexion also predated Mia Farrow, who became a fashion sensation when she adopted this same look for 'Rosemary's Baby' in 1968

And while they may not be getting the same amount of respect that their peers receive for their self-proclaimed breakthroughs, two recent theories have certainly provided Earhart with a fascinating life after her crash.

One of these theories involves her death, and the belief that giant coconut crabs may have carried away the pilot's remains after her body began to decompose on the ocean floor.

Earhart lives on in the second theory, which argues that the flying wonder became a spy for the Japanese.

The widely held belief though is that the pilot and her navigator were captured by Japanese troops who were setting up military bases in the Pacific. 

Those troops were said to be on board a transport ship heading to the island of Saipan, where Japan had a large military base, at the time of the crash.

Some even believe they may have played a role in taking the plane down that day. 

Kinney has previously stated his belief that after the crash, the plane was put on carts used for transporting ammunition and then loaded on to a barge that was towed to the island of Jaluit. 

There, it is presumed the plane was lifted onto the ship and then taken to Saipan.

Kinney was part of a team that travelled to the Mili Atoll in January of last year, which is when he found the remains of three of the ammunition cart's metal wheels and axles, while the wooden tops rotted away years ago.

Kinney said: 'The rails were moved and reset until the Japanese reached the lagoon side of the beach where the plane was loaded onto a small barge with the help of 40 locals.'

In 2009, Wally Earhart, Amelia’s fourth cousin, said the U.S. government continued to perpetrate a ‘massive cover-up’ about the couple and insisted they had died in Japanese custody.

‘They did not die as claimed by the government and the Navy when the Electra plunged into the Pacific - they died while in Japanese captivity on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas,’ said Mr Earhart, who did not reveal his sources.

He said that on Saipan, Noonan was beheaded by the Japanese and Earhart died soon after from dysentery and other ailments.

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Heavy metal: The legendary aviator was last heard from on July 2 of that year, noting the poor visibility and her declining gas levels in a series of transmissions that morning

Kinney and many other Earhart enthusiasts believe her plane was dumped into a giant pit in Saipan along with Japanese aircraft by US marines in the aftermath of World War Two. The pit is under a runway that is still being used. One researcher is trying to get permission to unearth the planes.

Then there was Thomas E. Devine, who served in a postal Army unit who spoke of a letter from the daughter of a Japanese police official who claimed her father was responsible for Amelia’s execution.

Photographs have also emerged over the years claiming to show Amelia in captivity - but these have been found to be fraudulent or to have been taken before she began her flight.

There are also the claims of U.S. troops who landed on Saipan after the war went on to insist they found a safe which, after it was blown open, was found to contain a briefcase filled with Amelia’s flying documents. 

Another claim, which has received no real support, claims that a stash of Earhart's documents were found in a cave on Saipan.