Not surprisingly, in the wake of the debunking of the photo featured in the infamous History Channel documentary "Amelia Earhart-The Lost Evidence," defenders of the faith have protested that the other evidence presented in the show makes a compelling case that AE and FN were captured by the Japanese. A recent article in the
Finger Lakes Times is a typical summation of the argument.
Among other things, the writer says,
"The July 9 History Channel documentary revealed a secret U.S. government report acknowledging Earhart was a prisoner of the Japanese. Unlike a controversial photo shown in the documentary, this revelation hasn’t been debunked.”
So, what's the deal? Is there, in fact, a secret U.S. government report acknowledging Earhart was a prisoner of the Japanese? At 06:32 into the show (for the moment, at least, available on Youtube at
https://youtu.be/sCS4s4Io9lc) a National Archives finding aid is shown and a particular paragraph is hi-lighted (screen capture attached). It says,
4. Record Group Records of the Office of Chief of Naval Operations
Includes a file on Amelia Earhart among the general correspondence of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
This file consists of 170 pages of correspondence and reports relating to the flight of Amelia Earhart but also includes a report, dated January 7, 1939, on information that Earhart was a prisoner in the Marshall Islands."
The 170 pages of correspondence and reports is undoubtedly "Report of Earhart Search by U.S. Navy and U.S.Coast Guard 2-18 July 1937" NND Project 795039. It's the combined reports of the various ships involved in the search. The supposedly missing 1939 report is a bit of a mystery. There is no indication that the report was secret nor is there any mention of who wrote the report of how many pages it is. The finding aid does NOT say that the report "acknowledges that Earhart was a prisoner of the Japanese." It's a report ON INFORMATION that Earhart was a prisoner in the Marshall Islands. The report may simply be reporting an allegation or it may be reporting on an investigation that found the allegation to be unfounded.
The specific January 7, 1939 date is interesting. It's well before hostilities broke out in December 1941 and long before Flight For Freedom was released in 1943. Earhart is supposedly being held prisoner in the Marshalls, not on Saipan.
This seems to be one of the earliest rumors of "Japanese capture." Can we find mention of an event, newspaper article, or story that may have sparked it?