Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the Republican delegate from the Northern Mariana Islands, has asked President Donald Trump to declassify any and all U.S. government records that might relate to the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart, saying the request responds to persistent local claims that Earhart was captured by Japanese forces and held on Saipan after vanishing in 1937.
In a letter to the president, King-Hinds said the issue is "a great concern for my constituents" and that she seeks "clarity and finality" for island residents whose elders have long told stories suggesting Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, survived a crash and were taken to the largest island of what is now the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, during an attempt to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe; the official U.S. position has been that she and Noonan likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific.
King-Hinds told the Daily Mail that she is not promoting conspiracy theories but is responding to testimony collected by local historian Marie Castro, now 92, who gathered accounts from Saipan elders. Castro recorded recollections from several women who said they saw a foreign woman with short hair, a U.S. airplane hidden in a Japanese hangar and the cremation of a female American pilot. Those who provided accounts have since died, the congresswoman said, and she argued that any surviving official records should be examined for corroboration.
The claims revive a long-standing alternative to the mainstream explanation of Earhart’s disappearance: the so-called Saipan theory. Proponents contend Earhart crash-landed on or near Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands, was captured by Japanese forces and moved to Saipan, where she died in captivity. Some researchers who support that line of inquiry also allege Earhart was on a covert mission to observe Japanese military activity in the Pacific at the request of the U.S. government, a claim that, if proved, could have significant historical implications for the Roosevelt administration.
"It's quite possible that during Earhart's early months in confinement, the Japanese government and the White House communicated about this situation," Navy veteran and Earhart author Mike Campbell told the Daily Mail. Campbell, who said he has spent nearly four decades investigating the Saipan theory, cautioned, however, that surviving documentary evidence may be scarce or destroyed.
Historians and independent researchers have repeatedly challenged elements of the Saipan theory. A photograph that surfaced in U.S. archives and was broadcast on a television program in 2017 was touted by some as showing Earhart and Noonan in Japanese custody; Japanese researcher Kota Yamano and other historians identified the image as having been published in a travel book before Earhart's disappearance. Skeptics emphasize that no definitive physical evidence has linked Earhart to Saipan, and mainstream searches have focused on other scenarios.
Deep-sea exploration efforts continue to pursue the most conventional hypothesis that Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10 Electra sank near Howland Island. Nauticos, a private company that has conducted multiple searches, announced earlier this year that it had refined Earhart’s probable last position using analysis of historical radio communications and launched a fourth expedition to search waters off Howland. "Our latest analysis is a major leap forward in solving one of the most enduring mysteries in aviation history," Nauticos president David Jourdan said.
On Saipan, residents are divided. Some back King-Hinds’s call for declassification and want answers they say have been passed down across generations. Others question the value of pursuing the issue or say there is no proof Earhart was ever on the island. Proposals have surfaced locally for a monument to Earhart funded by donations; critics have called such efforts premature.
The request to the White House follows a recent history in which President Trump authorized the release of thousands of pages of records in other high-profile cases, a precedent King-Hinds cited in urging similar openness for Earhart-related material. The White House did not respond to requests for comment made by the Daily Mail.
Earhart’s disappearance has produced numerous theories over nearly nine decades, ranging from accidental ditching near Howland to landing on a remote atoll and perishing as a castaway, to claims of abduction and espionage. Official records show that after a 16-day search covering more than 250,000 square miles, U.S. naval forces found no trace of Earhart or her plane. The absence of conclusive evidence has kept speculation alive, even as scholarly work and repeated expeditions have sought to resolve the case.
For many on Saipan, the question rests not only on aviation history but on recognition of oral testimony and respect for elders’ recollections. King-Hinds said she views declassification as a measure to provide closure for her constituents, regardless of whether documents, if released, confirm or contradict the local narratives.
Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932 and was a global celebrity, remains an enduring figure in American history. The debate over her fate—and calls for the U.S. government to disclose any related records—underscore how unresolved historical mysteries can continue to shape communities and public discourse decades after the events in question.