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37 - Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart by Paul L. Briand, Jr. · Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty seven of Daughter of the Sky The Story
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  Speaker 1: of Amelia Earhart by Paulbrion Junior. The s LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Part three, the Last Flight
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  Speaker 1: nine the Light of Fact, a mystery solved. Two additional events, however,
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  Speaker 1: separate in time and both involving Amelia Earhart, but heretofore
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  Speaker 1: never interrelated, do fit together in a logical and revealing pattern.
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  Speaker 1: All the pieces of the puzzle are not available, but
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  Speaker 1: there are enough of them to form a discernible picture.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of World War Two, Jacqueline Cochrane, then
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  Speaker 1: head of the WASPS, the famous organization of women fairy pilots,
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  Speaker 1: was asked by General hap Arnol to go to Tokyo and
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  Speaker 1: investigate the role that Japanese women had played in aviation
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  Speaker 1: during the war. While she was in Imperial Air Force Headquarters,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Cochrane noticed that there were numerous files on American
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  Speaker 1: aviation notables, and many files on Amelia Earhart. These documents,
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  Speaker 1: since that time have mysteriously disappeared. They are not in
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  Speaker 1: the official custody of the United States government or any
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  Speaker 1: of its departments, services, or agencies, nor do they seem
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  Speaker 1: to be in the possession of the Japanese government. All
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  Speaker 1: captured documents, those of historical importance having been copied on microfilm,
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  Speaker 1: have been returned to Tokyo. No AE files were discovered
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  Speaker 1: among the captured materials. Nevertheless, these files seemed to indicate
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  Speaker 1: that the Japanese had more than a normal interest in
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  Speaker 1: Amelia Earhart because of another event that happened curiously again
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  Speaker 1: in the Marianas. This new evidence has never before been
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  Speaker 1: made public. At the end of the war, on the
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  Speaker 1: island of Saipan, a Navy dentist worked with his assistant,
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  Speaker 1: a Native girl named Josephine Blanco. It was nineteen forty six.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Casimir R. Scheft, now practicing in New Jersey, was
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  Speaker 1: taking a break between appointments and talking with a fellow dentist.
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  Speaker 1: During the conversation, doctor Scheft casually mentioned the disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: Amelia Earhart and speculated about whether the famous flier could
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  Speaker 1: have ended her flight in the Marianas and possibly near Saipan,
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  Speaker 1: for he had read somewhere that the Marines had found
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  Speaker 1: a E's flight log during the invasion. Actually it had
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  Speaker 1: been the photograph album. Suddenly, his dental assistant Josephine broke in.
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  Speaker 1: She had seen an American woman flyer many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: nine or ten on Saipan when she was a little girl.
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  Speaker 1: The American woman wore Tacki clothes and had her hair
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  Speaker 1: cut like a man. Josephine Blanco, now missus Maximo Akiyama,
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  Speaker 1: and living in California with her husband and their young son,
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  Speaker 1: was witnessed to an incident which is as incredible as
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  Speaker 1: it is enlightening. In the summer of nineteen thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: Josephine was riding her bicycle toward Tantapag Harbor. She was
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  Speaker 1: taking her Japanese brother in law, j Y Matsumoto his
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  Speaker 1: lunch and was hurrying along because it was nearly twelve
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  Speaker 1: o'clock that summer. She had just finished Japanese grammar school,
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  Speaker 1: where she had gone for the last five years ever
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  Speaker 1: since she was seven years old. In March, she had
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  Speaker 1: celebrated her eleventh birthday and now she could begin Catholic school.
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  Speaker 1: She was looking forward to studying with the Spanish missionary sisters.
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  Speaker 1: Father Tanzio had hoped that someday Josephine, too, like some
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  Speaker 1: of the other Chamora Native girls in the Marianas would
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  Speaker 1: answer God's call and become a native sister. Josephine had
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  Speaker 1: a special pass to the Japanese military area near the harbor.
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  Speaker 1: Not even Japanese civilians were admitted to the area unless
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  Speaker 1: they carried the proper credentials. The young girl rode up
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  Speaker 1: to the gate, stopped her bicycle, and presented her her pass.
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  Speaker 1: The guard allowed her into the restricted area. On the
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  Speaker 1: way to meet her brother in law, Josephine heard an
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  Speaker 1: airplane flying overhead. She looked up and saw a silver
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  Speaker 1: two engine plane. The plane seemed to be in trouble,
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  Speaker 1: for it came down low, headed out into the harbor,
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  Speaker 1: and belly landed on the water. It was not until
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  Speaker 1: she met her brother in law that Josephine discovered who
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  Speaker 1: it was that had crashed landed in the harbor, the
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  Speaker 1: American woman. Everyone was saying, greatly excited, come and see
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  Speaker 1: the American woman. Josephine and her brother in law joined
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  Speaker 1: the knot of people who gathered to watch. She saw
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  Speaker 1: the American woman standing next to a tall man wearing
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  Speaker 1: a short sleeved sports shirt and was surprised because the
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  Speaker 1: woman was not dressed as a woman usually dressed instead
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  Speaker 1: of a dress, the American woman wore a man's shirt
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  Speaker 1: and trousers, and instead of long hair, she wore her
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  Speaker 1: hair cut short like a man. The face of of
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  Speaker 1: the man and woman were white and drawn as if
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  Speaker 1: they were sick. The American woman, who looked like a man,
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  Speaker 1: and the tall man with her were led away by
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese soldiers. The flyers were taken to a clearing
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  Speaker 1: in the woods. Shots rang out. The soldiers returned alone.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Akiyama has affirmed, after identifying a photograph of Amelia
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  Speaker 1: Earhart and Fred Noonan taken on the World flight, that
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  Speaker 1: the couple was unquestionably the same man and woman she
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  Speaker 1: and her brother in law had seen on Saipan. The
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  Speaker 1: clothes were different, but the woman's hair cut was unmistakable.
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  Speaker 1: Josephine Blanco's story, which is basically the same one she
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  Speaker 1: told doctor Scheft in Saipan, is most probably true. It
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  Speaker 1: is extremely unlikely this native girl could have invented her story.
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  Speaker 1: If she had, then for what purpose? If for profit
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  Speaker 1: or gain, she had for more than ten years after
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  Speaker 1: the American invasion, the opportunity to capitalize on her sensational news.
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  Speaker 1: As an eleven year old girl. Josephine, of course, had
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  Speaker 1: no idea of the significance of what she had seen,
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  Speaker 1: other than it was indeed an American woman she had seen.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Shaft has never doubted her story, and for many
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  Speaker 1: years he has hoped that a thorough re examination of
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  Speaker 1: the facts would be made. Amelia Earhart could have ended
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  Speaker 1: her flight around the world at Saipan if she were
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  Speaker 1: indeed headed for the Howland Island. However, she somehow made
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  Speaker 1: an error of about one hundred degrees in reading her compass.
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  Speaker 1: It means that all during the night of July second,
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  Speaker 1: beginning after sundown at five fifty five p m. Fred
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  Speaker 1: Noonan was not able to get a fix from the
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  Speaker 1: stars to determine his position. And if after fourteen miles
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  Speaker 1: out from Lay he looked down and saw a chain
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  Speaker 1: of islands, he would have determined that he was on
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  Speaker 1: course and over the Gilbert Islands. But if a e
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  Speaker 1: had turned north while he was napping, and he had
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  Speaker 1: still awakened in time to see islands, they would have
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  Speaker 1: been not the Gilberts, as he might have thought, but
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  Speaker 1: the Caroline Islands, exactly the same distance away, but in
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  Speaker 1: the wrong direction. By somehow departing from her course and
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  Speaker 1: making the tremendous error of steering north and west instead
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  Speaker 1: of east, as she had done once before on the
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  Speaker 1: world flight, when she had turned north to Saint Louis
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  Speaker 1: instead of south to decar, over riding Fred's directions. After
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  Speaker 1: the flight across the South Atlantic, A E would have
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  Speaker 1: found herself, after twenty hours of flying time, somewhere along
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  Speaker 1: the chain of islands that marks the Marianas. Her last
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  Speaker 1: report at eight forty five, A M gave her line
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  Speaker 1: of position as one fifty seven dashed three thirty seven.
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  Speaker 1: The Navy's search satisfied judgments that the line was not
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  Speaker 1: a radio line, for the areas northwest and southeast from
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  Speaker 1: Howland were thoroughly investigated. One hundred fifty seven dash three
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  Speaker 1: thirty seven therefore, was undoubtedly a sun line near Howland
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  Speaker 1: at a position zero one degrees zero zero minutes north
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  Speaker 1: latitude and one hundred seventy seven degrees twenty minutes west longitude.
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  Speaker 1: On July third, nineteen thirty seven, the bearing of the
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  Speaker 1: sun was sixty six degrees from the north point at
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  Speaker 1: seven o'clock am Howland time. The sun line therefore would
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  Speaker 1: have been one fifty six dashed three thirty six near Saipan,
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  Speaker 1: a position thirteen degrees zero zero minutes north latitude and
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  Speaker 1: one hundred fifty three degrees zero zero minutes east longitude.
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  Speaker 1: At five o'clock am Saipan time, the sun was sixty
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  Speaker 1: four degrees from the north point. A sun line there
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  Speaker 1: would have been one hundred fifty four dashed three hundred
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  Speaker 1: thirty four. If Noonan had thought he was close to
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  Speaker 1: Howland when he shot his last sun line, his geographical
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  Speaker 1: point of reference used for computing and plotting his observation
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  Speaker 1: would obviously have been close to Holland. If he had
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  Speaker 1: actually been close to Saipan, however, the relative position of
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  Speaker 1: the sun still would have been almost the same sixty
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  Speaker 1: four degrees from the north point near Saipan as opposed
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  Speaker 1: to sixty six degrees from the north point near Holland.
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  Speaker 1: But his observation, when computed and plotted on his chart,
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  Speaker 1: would have shown him to be the same number of
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  Speaker 1: miles from his geographical point of reference. An experienced navigator
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  Speaker 1: with trust in his abilities, such as Nonan, would have
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  Speaker 1: tended to believe that either his observations or his computations
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  Speaker 1: were somehow wrong. He would not have thought, at least
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  Speaker 1: immediately that he was some twenty six hundred miles off course.
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  Speaker 1: If Ae had been pressing him for a position to
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  Speaker 1: radio to the Atasca, he might have, in agonies of doubt,
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  Speaker 1: merely given her the line of position, which he could
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  Speaker 1: be sure of, but not the geographical point of reference,
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  Speaker 1: because he could now no longer determine that point with certainty.
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  Speaker 1: This possibility would explain the irregularity of Amelia having transmitted
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  Speaker 1: the line of position without the necessary point of reference.
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  Speaker 1: On the basis of these determinations, therefore, there is strong
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  Speaker 1: support for believing in Josephine Blanco's story. The Navy gave
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  Speaker 1: Amelia until about noon before she would go down. It
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  Speaker 1: was at noontime that Josephine saw the two motored plane
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  Speaker 1: ditch in Tanapag Harbor. The Navy's final conclusion was that
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  Speaker 1: Amelia had ended her flight somewhere north and west. Amelia
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  Speaker 1: Earhart and Fred Noonan were seen by two eye witnesses
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  Speaker 1: north and west of Howland on Saipan at that time
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  Speaker 1: of the year. The American woman and her tall male
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  Speaker 1: companion could have been none other than A e and
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  Speaker 1: Fred Noonan. In nineteen thirty seven on Saipan. According to
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  Speaker 1: Maximo and Josephine Akiyama, the Japanese military did not hesitate
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  Speaker 1: to kill any one Japanese civilian or tomorrow native whom
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  Speaker 1: they suspected of spying on their illegal fortifications. Japanese officialdom
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  Speaker 1: maintaining an enigmatic silence. The Japanese Embassy in Washington knows
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  Speaker 1: nothing of the Earhart case, nor does doctor John Young
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  Speaker 1: of Georgetown University, who examined captured Japanese documents for the
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  Speaker 1: American government concerning the disappearance of the two flyers. It
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  Speaker 1: may be idle to speculate upon the final fate of
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  Speaker 1: Fred Noonan and Amelia Earhart. The evidence, however, justifies at
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  Speaker 1: least one tenable conclusion. When Josephine Blanco saw the twin
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  Speaker 1: engined silver plane, Amelia and Fred had been flying for
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  Speaker 1: twenty six consecutive hours and for four thousand feudal miles.
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  Speaker 1: The sight of the island that was Saipan must have
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  Speaker 1: cheered the flyers with renewed hope for safety and for
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  Speaker 1: life itself. When they survived the crash landing in Tanapag Harbor,
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  Speaker 1: only to be taken into custody as spies, their joy
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  Speaker 1: must have turned to inexplicable bitterness. They had been saved
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  Speaker 1: not for life but for death before a Japanese firing squad.
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  Speaker 1: For Amelia, who had once said to her husband, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to go, but when I do, I'd like
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  Speaker 1: to go in my plane quickly, the last word of
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  Speaker 1: her wish must have struck her now with sudden and
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  Speaker 1: ironic force. Yet, as she had so often before, Amelia
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  Speaker 1: Earhart must have met this challenge with stubborn self control
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  Speaker 1: and resolute courage. For here, at last was her unmistas
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  Speaker 1: stakable but irrefutable fate. End of section thirty seven, end
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  Speaker 1: of Daughter of the Sky, The Story of Amelia Earhart
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  Speaker 1: by Paul Breon Junior,