Busy time for Project Amelia Earhart flyer

To W0PV, sorry, but you read the back page printing notice wrong.

I'll break down the kanji for you here:

昭和 = Showa
十 = ten
年= year

十 = ten
月 = month

五 = 5
日 = day

印 = mark
刷 = printing

Showa 10 is 1935 not 1955.

The rule for computing Showa date is: "add the number 1925 to the Showa date, to find the Gregorian calendar date".
(Gregorian calendar is the common western calendar we all use)

10 + 1925 = 1935 A.D.

As for the red front page hand ink stamp, it shows "one zero".
The hand stamp date uses a different numbering form from the back page.

The number for 10 can be written as either
一 O = one zero
or
十 = ten

This form of "one zero" instead of "ten" is typical of an old mechanical date changing hand stamp, with number inserts or rotary wheels.

As for the Japanese national library, on their official digital achive website portal, they list their copy of this book as published, printed, and sold to the public in 1935. The publishing company was based in Palau. It was an actual printed and published work with multiple copies printed. It is not someone's home scrapbook. The so-called "kimono-tassel" binding method was typical of that era for a small printing company, and this method was utilized by many published books by small printing houses. The binding method was considered traditionally elegant, and suitable for what we in the west might call a "coffee table book" these days. For those who can read Japanese and take the time to flip through the pages, one gets the feeling that it was intended to attract Japanese tourists to the South Sea islands steamship tours, and to show off the author as a cultured traveler.

 

The 1935 copyright publishing notice at the back of the book is factual evidence that it was published in 1935.
The US Government's National Archives never listed the photo as 1937.
The american researcher Les Kinney is the one who promoted the 1937 date for it.
He found an undated photocopy of the page from the book in the National Archives in a folder from pre-1937.
Les Kinney said his personal opinion was "the National Archives must have mis-categorized it pre-1937, they should have put it in 1937".
History Channel TV ran with that, using his personal opinion as gospel truth.

Facts are really much better evidence than personal opinion.

 

Thanks Bonnie for taking the time and effort to expand on it for us.

73, John

 

Hi Bonnie: Thanks for the detailed explanation of "coffee table books" circa 1935 -- especially that the book was published and bound, and not akin to a looseleaf lab notebook.

That said, it seems that the photo still confronts us with what appears to be two Caucasian persons on the pier, and something on the barge being towed by the freighter that appears to be a twin engine airplane missing its left wing. Even more surrreal is that, even though this photo appears in Japan's national library website, Les Kinney found a copy in previously classified Naval intelligence records in the US.

 

There is something glaringly missing in the photo. If in fact they were captured by the Japanese military
then where are the guards? I see none there. There appears to be several smaller sail boats which could be used
to escape in. Everybody is in plain clothes.

Bruce N7XGR

 

• As someone who has lived and traveled extensively in Asia and Oceania all my life, I don't see any Caucasian persons in that photo at all, and certainly none on that dock. But that really doesn't matter anyway, since the 1935 photo pre-dates the fateful Earhart 1937 flight.

• Using Occam's Razor, the most likely scenario for the photo in the US National Archives, is:

1. Some US agent or asset in Palau or Japan was tasked with collecting information (photos, intel, etc).
2. That agent conveniently found some photos in a gift shop travelogue book, which showed steamships and an island port.
3. They took a snapshot of the book's photo(s), annotated it in English, and sent it to the US handler(s).
4. An agency (ONI or Office of Naval Intelligence) in the US kept the snapshot in a file along with other info.
5. Later, the file was considered old and obsolete intel, with no reason to keep secret, so they de-classified it.
6. The file was placed in the US national archives for historic preservation.
7. Fast forward to the 21st century... Les Kinney is searching through the files, and thinks he has found an Earhart smoking gun
8. He makes a copy of the photo.
9. Les Kinney Wants To Believe. He sees only what he wants to see in the photo.
10. He shows the photo to the History Channel and they buy the whole story.
11. Photo analysts are hired by History Channel to authenticate the photo, and they will only say that "it looks like the photo hasn't been digitally altered".
12. A photo analyst hired by History Channel does some cursory image overlays and measurements and proclaims it Noonan, Earhart, and the Lockheed Electra.
13. Nobody at History Channel wants to pop the bubble on the story, so they don't want to look for the original source of the photo. They spend all their budget on video crew, travel, paying for the interviews, and the host presenters. They don't do any research using Japanese language.
14. History Channel TV uses the photo as the centerpiece for its show.

If History Channel knew ahead of time about their false claims on the Jaluit photo, then they perpetrated a hoax. But it seems they are silent at this point, or else, are claiming that they didn't know.
Overall, it is a shame that this photo has been used as sensational fodder, to muddy the waters, in the real search for what happened to the flight of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

History Channel's photo hoax tends to unfairly discredit the sincere eyewitness reports around the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati, Milli Island, etc. By virtue of appearing on the same show, they are now being unfairly tarred by the brush of History Channel's huge error.

The eyewitnesses should not be discounted in the historic search.​

 

Asserted but not compelling, Bonnie. Your Ockam's Razor scenario is BS.

It is a contrived scenario with NO DATA to support it.

Ockham's razor is used when there is at least a PAUCITY of data available, and the simplest explanation among many is invoked .

There is NO DATA whatsoever to support your scenario about ONI, nor an explanation why they would date the photo off by two years.

The archive photo is a print made directly from the negative-- as best as could be done, I have checked the grain pattern on the digital print--and this means that the 1937 archive shot is not a derivative from a private travelogue . It is not a copy of a copy. The Japanese 'book' is not documented as --published--in 1935 as a bound book.

I don't have any axe to grind Bonnie; I am hardly a person predicated on a BELIEF system.

So I ask you again, Bonnie: tell us more about the photo in the archives, DATED 1937.

 

So Bonnie,

Here is an interesting fact, one of many that doesn't fit in your contrived scenario:

Explain the font on the caption of the photo.

You seem to be saying that KENNEY provided that caption. What evidence to you have for this?

 

Yeh, the person sitting on the dock is George Harrison.

The plane on the barge is swamp gas.

The standing guy is Rudolph Valentino.

Explain to me why these explanations are any less valid.

 

Wow, what an adventure! While I am no pilot, this would be a dream come true. Best of wishes and prayers.

 

I can guarantee that if you were captured you would not be sitting on a dock or anywhere near where there are
means of escape. You would be held on board a military ship with no means of escape! Where are the Japanese guards?
It is what is missing in the photo that speaks loudly. Have you done any translation of this book?
Would they allow what appears to be Noonan to be holding what appears to be a paddle (oar) that can be used for a weapon?
Do you know what the names of the two large ships is and have you located the Captains logs for inspection?
One must ferret out every detail for what is in the photo as well as what is missing.

Bruce N7XGR

 

Harrison was born in 1943, and Valentino died in 1926 so, since it seems the photo was taken in either 1935 or 1937, neither of them is in the photo. Not as easy to dispel your swamp gas assertion.

 

Hi Chip,
Please point me to the evidence that the photo in the US national archives is dated 1937.

 

Bonnie, I found this, https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/jaluit-harbor-image
There does not appear to be any date for this. On the back is the word, Confidential.
As it is for the Office of Naval Intelligence this would be used to gather information
for ships movements in and out for Pacific Islands. Any small bits of information
that can be discerned from this type of photographs can tie into other information
thus leading to pre-war time activity about troop and material delivery's.

Bruce N7XGR

 

Update 15 July: WB6RQN /Aeronautical Mobile, Project Amelia Earhart 80th Anniversary Flight.

After departing Hamilton New Zealand for Pago Pago, just as Spirit was gaining altitude out over the ocean... Brian Lloyd experienced engine fuel flow problems in the aircraft.
The situation required an emergency return.
He landed safely at the airport in New Zealand.


Watch video of Brian Lloyd talking about this flight.

This will delay his flight schedule.