Amelia Earhart (14 page)

T
he argument rages on among Earhart researchers to this day relative to what became of her: Did she crash and sink near Howland Island as the U.S. government proclaimed, or did she wind up coming down on or near an island or atoll where she was found and picked up by the Japanese? A related argument is devoted to the topic of whether or not Earhart was on a spy mission for the United States. Though the U.S. government denies such a thing, as one would expect it to, evidence points to the probability that the Electra had been fitted with sophisticated camera gear to be used for photographing Japanese military installations in the Pacific.

Regardless of one's position on such matters, there exist some truths that must be considered. Mili Atoll is the southeasternmost atoll in the Marshall Islands group and located some one thousand miles northwest of Howland Island. Atolls are composed mainly of coral that grew in the shallow waters around ancient volcanoes that have long since subsided below the surface of the ocean. As a result of sea level changes, portions of the semicircular coral reefs yield low-lying islands somewhat linear in nature.

When the Japanese occupied the Marshall Islands group, they constructed an airfield on Mili Island in the southwestern section of the group. On arriving, they installed a type of rule similar to what they inflicted on their other Pacific Island possessions. They replaced local governments with military law and established rice, sugar, and rubber plantations wherein the natives were forced to work for small pay. Docks, ports, and landing fields were constructed using the labor of the natives. If any workers complained, they were punished severely and sometimes even killed.

Jororo Alibar was a Marshall Islander who lived on one of the islands of Mili Atoll. Jororo, a fisherman, had rowed to Barre Island in the company of several friends. Barre Island is located along the northwestern edge of the atoll. Even though they were instructed by the Japanese officers to stay away from Barre Island, the fishermen, all in their teens, had gone ashore and were occupied with some task at the upper end of the beach near the forest when they heard the sound of an airplane. The Marshall Islanders had seen airplanes before when Japanese aircraft were flown over the atoll. This one, however, sounded as if it was losing altitude. The young fishermen began to make their way down to the beach to get a better view.

At least three theories have been advanced in efforts to explain why the Electra came down. One is that it was shot down, a theory bolstered by claims of Japanese pilots. Another is that it simply ran out of gas. This second theory is plausible, given the distance the Electra traveled from New Guinea. The third, one advanced by experienced pilot and dogged Earhart researcher Elgen Long, brings up the notion of the failure rate of components of the Electra. Long points out that after departing on her around-the-world flight, Earhart never flew the Electra for as long as ten hours without experiencing mechanical failures of one kind or another involving the propellers, the electrical system, the fuel system, or the exhaust analyzer. In addition to these, according to Long, there were five more “mechanical failures of a non-routine nature.” Long thus provides the possibility of mechanical failure having a role in the downing of the Electra.

After a few steps the fishermen paused and watched as the silver airplane made a hard landing on an offshore reef. As they stared at the craft, two people exited from the middle and produced what Jororo referred to as “a yellow boat which grew.” Clearly, this was an inflatable life raft. When the raft was filled with air, the two strangers climbed into it and paddled for the shore. Jororo and his companions, fearing that the newcomers were Japanese and would catch them on the island, retreated into the dense undergrowth found beyond the upper edge of the beach.

As they watched, the two newcomers arrived at the shore. One of them, carrying a metal case, walked to a nearby kanal tree and buried the case. At this point, the fishermen observed that the two strangers were not the Japanese they were accustomed to; their skin was white. These were the first Americans the native islanders had ever seen. It is worth pointing out here that while in Lae, Noonan had purchased a metal briefcase and was seen carrying it aboard the Electra prior to taking off for Howland Island.

At the sound of the descending airplane, the Japanese military stationed on Mili Island, located south-southwest of Barre Island, procured one of the local fishing boats, crossed the lagoon, and steered toward the downed aircraft. On seeing the two figures on the beach, they anchored the craft, waded ashore, and approached them. Jororo and his friends slunk deeper into the undergrowth, for they did not wish to be seen by the Japanese soldiers, who made life miserable for the islanders. If they were found on the island, it was possible they would be apprehended and punished, even killed.

As the small contingent of soldiers approached, the two figures on the beach stood and awaited their arrival. From the brush, Jororo could hear the soldiers loudly and animatedly hurling questions at the newcomers. The two from the airplane responded in a language the fishermen had never before heard. At one point, one of the soldiers slapped the shorter of the two Americans, who screamed in response. At that point, Jororo realized it was a woman.

Following a few minutes of futile attempt at dialog, the Japanese pushed the Americans down the beach and toward the location where the fishing boat was anchored. After forcing them into the boat, they departed toward the south-southwest for Mili Island. Jororo and his friends remained in hiding for a long time after the Japanese left.

Word of the capture of the two American flyers spread rapidly throughout Mili Atoll. Bosket Diklan, the native wife of a Japanese officer, learned that the presence of the Americans represented a problem for the occupying army. Bosket's husband was immediately called to Jaluit Island, due west of Mili Atoll. Before leaving, he impressed on her the importance of secrecy relative to the two American flyers.

Fuji Firmosa was a Japanese pilot stationed on the aircraft carrier
Kaga
in the Marshall Islands in 1937. Firmosa was one of several pilots who were alerted to the presence of Earhart's plane in Japanese airspace. After taking off from the
Kaga
, Firmosa encountered the Electra in the air and made two passes at it. During the second pass, he claimed he fired several rounds of bullets at the plane. Once struck, the plane began descending when Firmosa lost sight of it.

Based on eyewitness testimony, the Electra, in addition to being seen by the young fishermen on Barre Island, was spotted by a Japanese fishing boat. Following some radio transmissions to the military leaders from this boat, another Japanese ship was summoned and arrived nine or ten days after the landing of the Electra. The coal tender
Kosyu
possessed the facilities with which to salvage the Electra and transport it elsewhere.

Tomaki Mayazo worked on the
Kosyu
, which at the time lay empty in the harbor at Jaluit, one of the Marshall Islands, while waiting to take on cargo. Mayazo recalled to an interviewer years later that as he was preparing to load coal into the
Kosyu
one evening on July 9, 1937, a military officer pressured him to finish his job quickly as the ship had been dispatched to Mili Atoll to pick up an airplane and its two American pilots.

On July 10, the
Kosyu
arrived at Mili Island in the atoll. Earhart and Noonan were placed aboard the ship. The vessel then traveled to Barre Island where, with the assistance of heavy canvas slings and a crane, the Electra was loaded aboard and placed on the fantail of the ship. This done, the
Kosyu
steered back toward Jaluit, where it arrived seven to ten days after the Electra had come down on Barre Island.

On July 13, Japanese foreign minister Koki Hirota sent a message from Tokyo to Ambassador Yoshida in London. The message read: “The
Advertiser
here reports that they received a London International News dispatch at 2:00 a.m. today to the effect that a Japanese fishing vessel had rescued the Earhart plane. Please verify this and confirm by return.”

The
Kosyu
arrived back at the island of Jaluit. John Heine, a grandson of German missionary Carl Heine, lived on Jaluit as a youth. He told Earhart investigator Bill Prymak that one day the schoolmaster took the students on a short trip to the harbor. When they arrived, stated Heine, “A ship had just pulled in and appeared to be towing a barge with an airplane on it.” The plane, he said, was unlike any Japanese aircraft he had ever seen. He was later told it was an American plane and that a woman had been flying it when it crashed at Mili Atoll.

On the ship's arrival at Jaluit, the director of health services was summoned, as was a sixteen-year-old medical corpsman trainee named Bilimon Amran (sometimes spelled Amaran). The two were escorted aboard the
Kosyu
, and Amran was ordered to treat the wounds of the male flyer. On being admitted to the room in which the two prisoners were held under guard, Amran realized the two captives were Americans. The woman, he noted, wore trousers similar to what a man would wear, and her hair was cut short. The man, according to Amran, had blue eyes, something Amran had never seen before. Noonan's military records state his eyes were blue-gray.

Amran was ordered not to speak to the prisoners and to get busy treating the man's wounds. He had been cut on the head and had a serious fourinch-long gash on one knee. It was explained that the man had suffered the injury when the plane crash-landed on the reef at Mili Atoll. In the nearly two weeks that had elapsed, the wound had become infected and inflamed. Amron cleaned it, applied an ointment, and rebandaged it.

As Amran repacked his medical kit, he overheard the Japanese officers mention that the ship was going to leave Jaluit for Kwajalein and then proceed on to Roi-Namur, two islands in the Marshall group where the Japanese had military bases. From there, it would continue to Truk Atoll and then on to the island of Saipan. Amran also heard some of the officers refer to the female prisoner as “Ameera.” Amran learned later that her name was Amelia.