Happy New Year
By Janet Go | January 10, 2010
On January 6, I returned from a Christmas cruise to Hawaii aboard Holland America’s Zaandam, which is undergoing refurbishing in drydock in San Francisco now. Christmas was celebrated in style on the ship, and Santa Claus arrived to give presents to all the children on board.
I enjoyed our week’s tour of the Hawaiian Islands, which is suffering from financial woes much like the rest of the country. President Obama and his family were in Kailua,Oahu, when I was there, too.
I was shocked when I arrived at Kona, on the Big Island. I walked into the King Kamehameha Hotel, where I’ve spent many good times, and was surprised to see that its shopping arcade was empty. About 5 or 6 years ago, the arcade was filled with high-end shops, many of which are boarded up today. Our ship’s passengers were welcomed in stores and sights in Kona, Hilo, Lahaina, and Nawiliwili, but other ships are talking about not calling at some Hawaiian ports now because of financial problems.
Let’s hope that the year 2010 will show improvement in the world’s financial problems and in the world of cruising.
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The Mystery of Amelia Earhart
By Janet Go | November 19, 2009
The newly released movie, “Amelia,” took me back to my days as a reporter on the “Pacific Daily News” in Guam. I enjoyed the movie and was surprised that it ended when her plane crashed in the South Pacific. Viewers are left to decide whether Earhart and Noonan died in the crash or survived.
I moved to Guam after working for 2 years for the Trust Territory of the U.S. in Saipan, an island north of Guam, so my editor thought I was the perfect one to interview a man who had knowledge of Amelia Earhart’s last days. So in November 1970, I interviewed Joe Artero, a Government of Guam employee.
Artero told me that in 1937, when he was 22 years ago, he went to Saipan and heard from a police detective that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan had been executed there. He also learned that the Japanese were fortifying the island, building a submarine base, and preparing to capture Guam. A Saipan police officer said he had photographed the Americans riding in a military auto with the Japanese governor of Saipan.
At home in Guam, Artero was questioned by the Naval Commander of Guam, who ridiculed the story that the Japanese had captured the aviators after her crash and taken her to Saipan. However, when American forces invaded Saipan in 1944, Earhart’s briefcase was discovered. Papers indicated that Earhart and Noonan had been spies and were held in a jail in Saipan until their deaths. There was even a photo of Earhart with her hands bound in back. This evidence was classified Top Secret and disappeared into U.S. Navy hands.
You can read more of my interview with Artero in my book “Where America’s Day Begins,” available through this website or at Amazon. Also, Fred Goerner’s book “The Search for Amelie Earhart,” published by Doubleday and Company in 1966, tells the complete story of the aviators’ crash and subsequent capture by the Japanese and taken to Saipan. She should be remembered an American hero who met a horrific death.
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