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Earhart Project Research Bulletin #84 |
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Alleged Photo of Amelia Earhart Photo Dated Before Her 1937 Disappearance |
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History Channel documentary centerpiece cannot be Earhart. |
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The picture is one of many in a travel book titled “Umino Seimeisen Wagananyou No Sugata: (Nanyo Gunto Shashincho)” which translates as “The Life Line of the Sea, My South Sea Memoir (South Sea Archipelago Photo Book).” It is by Notoaki Nishino of Palau and published by Fumio Almano in Tokyo on October 10, 1935. The book may be viewed on line. The photo is on book page 44 (Web Reader Frame 99). |
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The captions read, “Jaluit island, Jabor port” (at left of the photo) and “Jabor is a rare great port. Once a month when a big ship enters the port and brings many rare materials, a Big Chief schooner and a Small Chief schooner gather the port and make Jabor so lively.” (under the photo) It is the same photo found by Earhart researcher Les Kinney in National Archives Records of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Record Group 38, among intelligence material assembled in preparation for the invasion of the Marshalls in 1944. TIGHAR was among those who were incredulous that the photo showed Earhart and Noonan in Japanese custody. The picture was undated; there were no Japanese, no guards, the figure alleged to be Amelia had hair that was much too long; the identification of a man as Fred Noonan depended upon a photo of Noonan that had been reversed to make the hairline match; their clothes were wrong; an indistinct blob behind a ship was proclaimed to be Earhart’s Electra on a barge – and yet, to dozens of media outlets, the photo was heralded as “proof” of Earhart’s fate. TIGHAR determined early on that the photo was not misfiled as Mr. Kinney, believed but was exactly where it should have been. The caption on the Office of Naval Intelligence photo reads:
The pasted-on caption made us suspect that this was a photo found in a pre-war commercial publication, but finding the original source seemed like a nearly impossible task. Never underestimate the power of a skeptical public empowered by social media. Exactly who first discovered the photo in the book is not clear, but @baron-yameneko may have been the first to sound the alarm. On July 9 @SamuraiK7 (Kiyo Marco T) put it out on Yahoo Japan and @MsSamAdams (Samantha Adams) quickly put it out on Twitter. The cat was out of the bag and Gator 99.5, a country music station in Lake Charles, Louisiana was perhaps the first to break the story on its website. The centerpiece of the History Channel show has collapsed, but what about all that other evidence? In fact, the other evidence presented in the show is factually inaccurate information and a re-hash of old, thoroughly debunked folklore.
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