none of my ridicule is aimed at you
Robert, rest assured, that thought never entered what's still left of my mind. I do however object to it being used aimed at anyone as a counter to a point of contention.
trying to profit from that interest.
Yea, the American way though again in many cases a legitimate attempt to find a solution. Getting to the "scene of the crime" to do any field work/research/interviews/etc. is very expensive and needs to be underwritten in most cases so now "entertainment value" enters the picture.
Yea, it would be a wonderful thing if everyone doing anything illegal/immoral would just document/photograph/record it so we could nail them with it at some point in time. Unfortunately so much of this happens sub rosa for that very reason so circumstantial is all you have. We can differ on whether the Japanese captured and held them but I think we could probably agree that if they did they would not want to announce that to the world community from which they were already being marginalized due to their actions in China/Manchuria/SE Asia.
THE JAPANESE HAD NO MOTIVE.
Here we depart. The Japanese were absolutely obsessive about keeping outsiders away from the Mandate. It really doesn't matter if or what was going on or if Earhart/Noonan saw or filmed anything the mere fact that they were there and could have was a guilty verdict especially in such a backwater isolated part of the Empire far removed from any type of civilian control. Then once begun backing up and admitting error is to loose face, not something that's going to happen in Japanese culture. Consider Otto Warmbier, he took a POSTER!!! and the N. Koreans jailed him for a year and a half and somehow he ended up in a coma and died after being released AND No One Don't Know Nothing!!! Think any hard official records still exist?
Motive is a very subjective thing. I kill you 'cause you are Christian. Muslim, Jewish, Blond, Female, White, Black, etc. not to mention the old "in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time" motive which was Earhart/Noonan's "crime".
interpret their fuel consumption
I disagree but grant you your point. The amount of fuel loaded at Lea is a hard fact at 1156 gallons. The Electra's fuel consumption from Oakland to Honolulu in March at 38.97 gph is a hard fact. A hard fact detailed engineering report was prepared by a young Lockheed engineer named Clarence L. ("Kelly") Johnson to provide data for the best takeoff, climb and cruise performance with the very heavily loaded airplane. The maximum speed for the Model 10E Special at Sea Level and maximum takeoff weight was 177 miles per hour (284.9 kilometers per hour), a reduction of 25 miles per hour (40.2 kilometers per hour) over the standard airplane. The maximum range was calculated to be 4,316 miles (6946 kilometers) using 1,151 gallons (4,357 liters) of fuel. Hard fact, Art Kennedy overhauled and calibrated her engines using Pratt & Whitney test equipment after which he gave her 4.5 to 5.5hrs additional flight time after her 20:14 transmission to the Itasca. Now that's not a hard fact but a calculation however Earhart at no time reported a fuel leak and she was well aware of proper mixture settings.
Seikai Maru (or Harumi Maru) ?
Shinpachi, one problem we will always face here it trying to translate Japanese written/spoken into English written. As you well know there are a number of methods of rendering Japanese in Roman letters. The Hepburn method of romanization, designed for English speakers, is a de facto standard widely used inside and outside Japan. The Kunrei-shiki system has a better correspondence with kana, which makes it easier for native speakers to learn. It is officially sanctioned by the Ministry of Education and often used by non-native speakers who are learning Japanese as a second language. Other systems of romanization include Nihon-shiki, JSL, and Wāpuro rōmaji. I find a Seikai Maru as a gunboat in the battle of the Coral Sea and the Harumi as an Ocean-going tug.
As to the Log Book it could easily been altered or the captain ordered not to include Earhart/Noonan in it, or even to alter locations and Dates. The captain would not have wanted to disobey the Kenpeitai
she flew a north/ south pattern in an effort to find Howland and no one knows how long she did that so even with 5 hours of fuel no one could accurately predict where she would wind up. Take her LKP and calculate a 5 hour flight radius (this was shown earlier) and it still puts her in the middle of nowhere
Joe as I understand Noonan's DR methods: Cloudy conditions prevent Him from taking a celestial fix that night. At sunrise he has a sun azimuth of 67 degrees True and an LOP of 337-157. He knows his East/west position from the time of sunrise but not his North/South. He draws a 337-157 LOP on his chart and parallel LOP through Howland. Now that it is daylight he can approximate their ground speed and drift and thus determine the time required to fly the distance between his two LOPs. He tells Earhart they will reach his second LOP at 19:00 GMT. To find Howland they must now fly a ladder search North then South then North again the South further and further each time. Eventually she gives up and turns West towards the Gilbert Islands but she is further North than expected and reaches Mili Atoll instead of the Gilberts as was her back-up plan
could have sent several B-17s with the most advanced cameras
Joe, after the crash of the Model 229 the Army cut its order of the YB-17 to just 13 aircraft the first of which flew on 2 Dec 1936. When its brakes fused and it nosed over the Army quickly transferred all Yb-17s to Langley field Virginia to develop safety protocols and heavy bomber techniques. The YB-17A of which there was only one first flew 29 April 1938 so at the time of Earhart's flight the US heavy bomber fleet was 13 YB-17s. Not to mention the the US could not be MILITARILY interested in the Marshalls thus Roosevelt's use of civilians like Astor. I honestly don't think Earhart was trying to spy but was ask to "Keep her eyes open and camera handy"
there was no interest in this part of the world by the Japanese in 1937.
Actually by this point the Japanese were thinking of a Pacific war and had thus begun to militarize the Marshalls. Ostensibly civilian structures they were constructed to military standards for easy conversion. Thus they had begun building air bases on several atolls. The Marshall Islands were in an important geographic position, being the easternmost point in Japan's defensive ring at the beginning of World War II
it again would have benefited the Japanese to come clean in the post war years considering they did so when unit 731 was uncovered.
If only Governments were so straight forward and honest.
Head Priest Nagayoshi Matsudaira, who rejected the Tokyo war crimes tribunal's verdicts, enshrined the Class A war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine in a secret ceremony in 1978.
The Yasukuni Shrine's museum and web site have made statements criticizing the United States for "convincing" the Empire of Japan to launch the attack on the United States in order just to justify war with the Empire of Japan, as well as claiming that Japan went to war with the intention of creating a "Co-Prosperity Sphere" for all Asians.
On October 2006, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed an apology for the damage caused by its colonial rule and aggression, more than 80 Japanese lawmakers from his ruling party LDP paid visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.
On 2 March 2007, the issue was raised again by Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe, in which he denied that the military had forced women into sexual slavery during World War II. He stated, "The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion." Before he spoke, a group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers also sought to revise the Kono Statement (a government study that found that the Japanese Imperial Army had forced women, known as comfort women, to work in military-run brothels during World War II. The Japanese government had initially denied that the women had been coerced until this point.)
On 31 October 2008, the chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force Toshio Tamogami was dismissed with a 60 million yen allowance due to an essay he published, arguing that Japan was not an aggressor during World War II, that the war brought prosperity to China, Taiwan and Korea, that the Imperial Japanese Army's conduct was not violent and that the Greater East Asia War is viewed in a positive way by many Asian countries and criticizing the war crimes trials which followed the war.
On 11 November, Tamogami added before the Diet that the personal apology made in 1995 by former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama was "a tool to suppress free speech".