6/18
Our last day on Saipan. After breakfast our group split in two. There was a large rock called “Old Man by the Sea.” On a beach, elements of nature had carved a reasonable facsimile of the face of a man into the rock. The more adventurous of our group were making the hour plus trek down to the remote rock. Jack, Mary Lyn, Bill and myself stayed behind. We would meet up later for lunch. On our agenda was a museum and a sort-of museum. Our first stop was a small, well laid out museum that covered some of the history of Saipan. What fascinated me the most were two framed, typed statements regarding Amelia Earhart. Here are the two interviews:
Matilde F. Arriola is among the most important of the Chamorro eyewitnesses to the presence and death of Amelia Earhart on Saipan.
The Saipanese elders who witnessed the American woman pilot's presence here on Saipan are long gone. However, in 1983 Marie S. Castro interviewed Matilde, who, as a woman of 24, had personal contacts with Amelia Earhart in 1937. Matilde's family was living next door to the Kobayashi Royokan Hotel, which was used by the Japanese for political detainees.
Matilde's mother knew English and spoke closely with Amelia Earhart, while Matilde, her younger sister, Consolacion, and Mariano, her brother, all communicated with Amelia Earhart.
The slender American woman, who wore a short-hair style, gave Consolacion a ring with a white stone, set in a crown mounting. Unfortunately, Consolacion was wounded during the war and fell very ill. Before she died of her wound she gave the ring to Matilde, who wore it until after the war. The ring remained in her possession during and after the war and was eventually given to her niece Trinidad, who lost it.
"Mrs. Joaquina M. Cabrera brought us closer to the woman held at the Kobayashi Royokan [Hotel] than any other witness," Fred Goerner wrote in his 1966 bestseller, The Search for Amelia Earhart.
"One day when I came to work, they were there... a white lady and man," Joaquina told Goerner. "The police never left them. The lady wore a man's clothes when she first came.
I was given her clothes to clean. I remember pants and a jacket. It was leather or heavy cloth, so I did not wash it.
"I rubbed it clean," Joaquina continued. "The man I saw only once. I did not wash his clothes. His head was hurt and covered with a bandage, and he sometimes needed help to move. The police took him to another place and he did not come back. The lady was thin and very tired.
"Every day more Japanese came to talk with her. She never smiled to them but did to me.
She did not speak our language, but I know she thanked me. She was a sweet, gentle lady.
I think the police sometimes hurt her. She had bruises and one time her arm was hurt.
Then, one day ... police said she was dead of disease.”
Supposed eyewitnesses and passed down oral history, is not evidence. It suggests but does not prove. Howland Island, Earhart’s destination that day, is a long way from Saipan. To me it’s not conceivable that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, could have been that far off course. One theory is they crash-landed in the Marshall Island, were found by the Japanese and brought to Saipan. Advancing this theory, the Japanese believed they were spying for the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), were questioned and eventually executed.
After the island was secured support troops were brought in. This included postal service. Thomas Devine was a soldier in the postal unit. A curious sort, one day he and a friend were nosing around, came upon a large tin shed and inside saw a Lockheed Electra E-10. The same type of plane Earhart flew. Some marines were guarding it and Devine spoke to them. They claimed it was Amelia Earhart’s plane. Then a civilian came up and angrily ordered them away. Once the war was over Devine repeatedly contacted the ONI, urging them to investigate whether Earhart was on Saipan. All his efforts were stonewalled. Based on pictures Devine believed the civilian who had ordered them away was James Forrestal, then Secretary of the Navy. Devine believed Forrestal had the plane destroyed to quell the rumors of Earhart’s capture, torture and execution by the Japanese. Thinking ahead that Japan would be a post war ally, and having to sell that to the American people, it would be easier if this atrocity was not known. Especially since it involved a popular icon like Amelia Earhart.
Devine, while stationed on Saipan, was shown two gravesites by an Okinawan woman who claimed they were the gravesites of Earhart and Noonan. He noted by memory the location of the graves. After the war he intended to return to Saipan, with the dental records of the two fliers, and dig up the graves. Again he was stonewalled. He was unable to obtain the dental records and the ONI, for unexplained reasons, would not grant him permission to enter Saipan.
After the museum we went to lunch at Herman’s restaurant/bakery. The original Herman, who had once been the police chief on Saipan before opening the bakery, had long since passed away and his sons now ran it. One of them came up to me, wanting to talk about Earhart. He contemptuously dismissed any possibility of her ever being held captive on Saipan. His father, being police chief at the time, would have known about it but nothing was ever said. A white woman being held by the Japanese would have been noteworthy enough to mention. I passed this info on to Genevieve who just as quickly dismissed his analysis. She said the Saipanese were 2nd class citizens under the thumb of the Japanese. Passing on any kind of information was dangerous and those in charge were not above summarily executing someone. To protect his spouse and family the wisest thing for the police chief to have done would be to sit on that news.
So, was there a cover-up and conspiracy? Those two words can quickly become controversial. If you believe Oswald was the sole shooter that awful day in Dallas, you’ll also probably believe Earhart’s plane was lost at sea somewhere near Howland Island and never found. If you believe there was more than one shooter in Dallas and a subsequent government cover-up, you more than likely will believe Earhart and Noonan ended up in an unmarked grave on Saipan. If her plane is ever found in the ocean that will be the end of the story, if not the controversy will continue. Myself, I’m just going to do more reading about it. Alas though, I fear all I’ll ever be able to do is file this in the “inconclusive” category. I just wish the niece hadn’t lost that ring.
We made one more stop that day, at a sort-of museum. A broken down building full of relics from the Battle of Saipan. The owner, a very eager Chamorro man who himself had a Purple Heart from fighting in Iraq, was more of a collector than curator. Everything was rusted out, from mess kits to machine guns, both American and Japanese. Helmets, some with bullet holes in them, bayonets, rifles, gun belts, boots, backpacks, c-ration cans and unexploded shells and grenades. Yikes! Harmless he assured us. Okay. Some items hung on the walls, others were in glass cases. One display stopped me in my tracks. Dog tags. Also both Japanese and American. I was troubled by this display. Having worn a set myself, I knew dog tags were a very personal item. They were worn solely for the purpose of identification in the event of a violent death. How they came to be in this glass case is uncertain. Maybe lost, but more likely the bearer met violent death. I wasn’t sure having them on display was appropriate.
Later Steve asked about our visit to the sort-of museum and I told him about the one display that bothered me. He must have relayed this information on to Gordon for at dinner that evening, at a Japanese restaurant, Gordon asked me about it. I said at every battle there were missing in action, MIAs, and who knows, there was an off chance one of those sets of dog tags could clear up an unknown. I thought Gordon was looking at me angrily until I realized he was just very serious. “If it was you, what would you do?” He asked. I knew there was a military presence on the island and I’d start there I answered. Ask them how to proceed. It seemed to me these dog tags should be in possession of the families of the men who once wore them. If in typical fashion the government blew him off, then so be it, he tried. Gordon nodded and knowing him as someone who made things happen, I was sure he would follow up.