New show on history channel about Amelia Earhart

[Matt Revington]

Odd that this got so much attention, all I see is a fuzzy back shot of person who could be AE but who could also any person of either gender with a slim build and medium length hair.  The barge being towed also could easily be many other things, not really sure how they estimated the size with such precision I would think land marks of known distances would be required, is Jaliut harbour identical today so that they could get them.   It is apparently undated.  Really just a misfiled random photo of a harbor  in the Marshal's at some point around WWII .  I think that being misfiled is how it wasn't purged along with all evidence of the Japanese capture theory, of course it may have been properly filed and had nothing to do with AE.

The  "computer forensic examiner is quoted as saying "I can say with more than 99.7 percent confidence that the photo is authentic and untouched," all that means is that it wasn't photoshopped.

[Ric Gillespie]

All good observations.  Is the ship in the background really the Koshu as claimed?
I'm working on an official TIGHAR response to this idiocy, if the phone ever stops ringing.

[Kevin Weeks]

thanks for approving me Rick. I'm not sure how close this will be, but I did some research into vessels that called into jaluit before WWII. I found a couple steamers in the size range that is shown in the background of the Jaluit harbor image. one was the US ship albatross but it did not fit the profile. the other was the German postal steamer "Germania" it changed hands, companies and names several times over the course of it's life until 1945. this ship seems to match up fairly well with what is seen in the photo. the steamer has records available online of some of it's port of call dates. I found some and will post them up when I get a moment.
here is a link to some information regarding the ship:
http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/MIShips/Germania.html

[Kevin Weeks]

All good observations.  Is the ship in the background really the Koshu as claimed?
I'm working on an official TIGHAR response to this idiocy, if the phone ever stops ringing.

I would say that is not the koshu in the background. the Koshu appears to be much larger with a different shaped bow entirely.

[Ric Gillespie]

The ship in the distance may be the Germania but the ship nearest the wharf does appear to be the Koshu.
Let's see if we can find out when Koshu visited Jaluit.

[Matt Revington]

When I look at the two pictures that Ric just posted of the Koshu from 1918 and the photo in question it appears there is a structure on the bow in the jaliut photo that is not there in the older photo.  I acknowledge this is at about the same resolution as the "barge" but to me it looks something like a gun battery (terminology?) see in the  japanese destroyer pic i have attached.  I understand the Koshu was a merchant ship that was later retrofitted to be a transport for the Japanese Navy at some point.  If this  is a new gun (a big if) then would the retrofit have occurred by July 1937?

[Kevin Weeks]

The ship in the distance may be the Germania but the ship nearest the wharf does appear to be the Koshu.
Let's see if we can find out when Koshu visited Jaluit.

very hard to pick out details on the ship in the distance. similar though. I don't agree with the Koshu too many general size issues. the large rectangular drop side on the bow section does not appear to be on the Jaluit image and the rear transition from the cabin area to the upper rail is radiused on one and square on the other.

When I look at the two pictures that Ric just posted of the Koshu from 1918 and the photo in question it appears there is a structure on the bow in the jaliut photo that is not there in the older photo.  I acknowledge this is at about the same resolution as the "barge" but to me it looks something like a gun battery (terminology?) see in the  japanese destroyer pic i have attached.  I understand the Koshu was a merchant ship that was later retrofitted to be a transport for the Japanese Navy at some point.  If this  is a new gun (a big if) then would the retrofit have occurred by July 1937?

the koshu has gun batteries fore and aft in that image. very hard to tell if there is anything on the other image. I'm not sure when Japan started taking control of the merchant ships for navy use.

author=Randy Conrad - You're gonna tell me that the Japanese government back in 1937 is gonna sit by and allow prisoners of war to sit on a shipping dock and act like nothing is going on.

A point of order, you got to remember that there were no POW's in 1937.  WWII did not kick off until September 1939 and America sat on the fence until the Pearl Harbour attack by the Japs in 1942! Japan & US were not at war nor enemies until 5 years after the duo went missing.  IF the photo can be proven to be AE and FN in Jaluit then maybe there could be some merit to them being on a civil 'US Spy Mission' for FDR's administration but I doubt this.

Wherever this photo was found I'm thinking there probably is information in the same file or folder regarding the circumstances of the scene, maybe even some info on the back of the photo. Maybe the people digging this photo up do not want any such info to be published if they have an agenda!!! :o

japan had started the second sino-japanese war by 1937 and we were on china's side handing out some harsh sanctions.
the photo does have info written on it, most news outlets have cropped it off.

[Greg Daspit]

The vessel behind in the post with the ship at different times looks the same. It could be a boat they normally have on board.  Look at the bow of the towed vessels. Both have a light spot on it and the profile looks the same. I wonder how big it is and if it could even hold an airplane

[Kevin Weeks]

I read a prewar report that after Japan took over the marshal islands at the end of WWI they brought in some sort of aircraft by steamship and were flying it out of the islands.

it seems that Japan did not like any missionaries there so they were all sending reports out trying to get help before japan closed up the missions and kicked them out.

[Diane James]

I think I'm looking at "love handles" hanging over this person's belt-line, something I doubt Amelia would have had. 
Diane

[Kevin Weeks]

I may have identified the background ship. the Koyo Maru was contracted as a subsidiary mail and cargo line to go to Jaluit after WWI.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz4uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=%22Nippon+Yusen+Kaisha%22+jaluit&source=bl&ots=PckXnJI17P&sig=W65ke-TtYbXy9WMA5Lh9MzFxhtM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6kYWSsvXUAhUJzIMKHVCoCvkQ6AEIMTAE#v=onepage&q=%22Nippon%20Yusen%20Kaisha%22%20jaluit&f=false
Koyo Maru

[Ric Gillespie]

It's hard to judge the length of the ship in the photo because we're seeing it an an angle.

I'm going to consult the Oracle of Glickman and ask him if they are the same ship.

[Matt Revington]

All of the Japanese merchant ship's spec can be found here
https://maritime.org/doc/id/oni208j-japan-merchant-ships/index.htm
It's the office of naval intelligence guide to Japanese ships in WWII
The koshu is not listed but many essentially identical vessels, according to another site that cited this manual the koshu was in the 208j classification

[Randy Jacobson]

For what it is worth, this from the Daily Mail, UK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4670468/Photo-showing-Amelia-Earhart-NOT-aviator.html

"But MailOnline had access to this same picture a year ago - and an investigation in the US National Archives established that the photo was among a batch taken after 1940, at least three years after she disappeared."

Randy Jacobson, resident skeptic

[Ric Gillespie]

Thanks Randy.  If we can verify this, it blows them out of the water.  We need to find out who the MailOnLine "investigator" is.  We need file numbers, etc.
I'll try to contact them.