Ernesto C. Arriola said he has discovered “anomalies” at the old Japanese jail in Garapan.
Ernesto C. Arriola stands near some of the cells at the old Japanese jail. Some local residents believe that Amelia Earhart was imprisoned and died on Saipan.
SAIPAN resident Ernesto C. Arriola needs the help of an archaeologist in order to learn more about the “anomalies” buried behind the old Japanese jail in Garapan.
He said in February 2023, with the use of ground penetrating radar equipment that he borrowed, he discovered a number of “anomalies” along the building’s western façade.
He speculates that the “anomalies” could be tied to Amelia Earhart, the American aviator whose plane vanished over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe along the equator in 1937.
Some local residents believe that she and her navigator Fred Noonan were captured by the Japanese and brought to Saipan where they later died. At the time, the NMI was under Japanese administration.
In an interview on Tuesday at the old Japanese jail, Arriola pointed out the sites where the equipment spotted objects underneath the ground.
Arriola thinks there is a possibility that Earheart was buried near the jail.
He is interested in partnering with an archeologist so that excavation could be done at the site. He said he wants to create a work plan that could be submitted to the Historic Preservation Office.
“Once we dig, then we’ll know,” he said. “Otherwise we’re just talking. We need a work plan to submit to HPO so they can approve it. I wish somebody would say I’m willing to help you. I’m open.”
Arriola said he became interested in the Earhart mystery in the 1990s after hearing the story from Franceska Sablan Celis, who knew the Japanese soldier who guarded a “Caucasian male and female” at the Saipan jail.
Arriola said Celis’s story was “ignored” while she was alive.
Arriola is likewise familiar with the other stories from other senior citizens, who said they saw a Caucasian male and female, and their airplane, being held in captivity by the Japanese.
“Local witnesses said the Japanese brought the aircraft to Saipan, and they saw it being pulled from behind [the current Garapan McDonald’s] and then brought to Isley field,” Arriola said.
Earhart’s disappearance has fascinated the world for decades, and has resulted in a number of theories explaining the mystery.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that an American pilot, Tony Romeo, believed that he had found Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra based on a sonar image of an aircraft-shaped object resting on the ocean floor in the Pacific.
Romeo told the Journal that he plans to return to get better images.
For Arriola, the most compelling evidence is here on Saipan.
“They think when Chamorros talk about Amelia Earhart that we’re just making up a story. No. We’ve got all this evidence,” he said, adding that his plan is “to leave no stone unturned.”
Last year, Ernesto C. Arriola rented ground penetrating radar equipment, which he used at the old Japanese jail in Garapan. Next to him is a stake that marks the location of what he believes to be one of the “anomalies” in the ground.
This is the image scan that Ernesto Arriola obtained last year. The bunched up lines in the image are what Arriola calls “anomalies.” He wants to partner with an archaeologist to determine what they are. He speculates they could be tied to Amelia Earhart.
