text: The photo, if of indisputable provenance, would go a long way to answering what became of the celebrated aviatrix and her navigator in 1937.
  
  But the story of Amelia Earhart as a real or imagined spy for the U.S. government, who crashed and was captured by the Japanese, and then perishing of natural causes or by eventual summary execution, is a very old tale that can be traced to well before America's entry into World War II.  It even made it into a TV dramatization at least once:  fans of Star Trek:  Voyager will remember Sharon Lawrence playing Amelia Earhart in the episode "The 37's" from season 2, episode 1, way back in 1995.
  
  I myself would find it fascinating if indeed Earhart and Noonan had been captured by the Japanese and had been allowed to languish in captivity in part due to the action or inaction of their own government, and by implication, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.