What I like about Fred Goerner's book is the background it gives about the politics of the impending WW2. Even if it doesn't help finding AE, it does make a convincing case that AE's flight had poltical significance, which may or may not have determined some of the choices that were made by her and the US government. I believe the Japanese were intensely interested in AE, were paranoid about what the US was doing, and probably had their best radio receivers and DF equipment monitoring her at all times. Unlike the US Coast Guard and Navy who were obviously caught off balance. In Ric's book as I recall it, the Japanese come across as can't really be bothered types who may or may not have got around to a cursory search for her by a boat that just happened to be in the area. (I understand that this is just my vague recall from over a month ago of what Ric's book was saying, so I could be inaccurate) If anybody had a good idea where she was, it was the Japanese. Whether or not they snatched her up is unknown, but if they did, would they admit it? If the US military learned of their capture of her, and Goerner's book makes a good case that the command structure did know or suspect that, wow, what an embarrassment and demoralizing incident for the US. Of course they would deny it. The Japanese to this day aren't eager to come clean about much of anything, they certainly would have nothing to gain by admitting to her capture even now. I'm sure if the Japanese found her plane, they would have taken it away to be thoroughly scrutinized, which may be why it's so hard to find her plane. In fact, they undoubtedly had a large naval presence in the Marshalls, only a couple hundred miles away. They could have been on the scene in mere hours, instead of the days it took for the US to make an extensive search.