One account says Earhart was prisoner
HAGATNA, Guam — A man with ties to Saipan shared information that promotes a theory that Amelia Earhart was brought to the island and held prisoner 80 years ago.
William “Bill” Sablan, who lives on Chamorro, said his uncle Tun Akin Tuho worked at the prison where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were taken prisoner in Saipan.
The History Channel shared the theory that the two were taken prisoner in a recent TV special called “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence.” Eighty years after Earhart made her voyage around the world, people are still trying to figure out what happened to the famed pilot.
The theory shared by History’s TV special says Earhart was captured and executed on Saipan by the Empire of Japan. The U.S. government and military knew it (and even found and exhumed her body). And both governments have been lying about it ever since. Sablan’s uncle’s story fits this theory. In 1971, he was speaking with his uncle and cousin about his dream of becoming a pilot when his uncle mentioned the people that were held prisoner in Saipan.
His uncle described an American woman and man taken to a Saipan prison in the mid-1930s by ship. He said they were found with a plane on a southern Pacific Island under Japanese control.
Sablan said Earhart was brought to Saipan, for it was a hub for the Japanese.
His uncle said that he remembers the woman and man because Caucasian people were rare on Saipan. The prison was usually quiet, but the pair’s arrival caused a commotion.
“They had no reason to be there,” Sablan said.
The uncle said that the two were in the Saipan prison for two or three days before they were killed.
Sablan said it’s possible the U.S. found and relocated the remains.