Fred Noonan Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan (born April 4, 1893; declared missing July 2, 1937 and dead June 20, 1938), was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop with famed aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), as her navigator when they disappeared somewhere over the Central Pacific Ocean during one of the last legs of their attempted pioneering round-the-world flight. Fred Noonan was born in Cook County, Illinois (the
Japanese settlement in Papua New Guinea residents maintained links with their native wives for a few years before remarrying in Japan, but none of them returned to Papua New Guinea throughout their remaining lives. The mixed-race Japanese assimilated with the local populace within a few years after the war and identified themselves as Papuans. A 1921 census counted 87 individuals, and the number of Japanese residents in New Guinea witnessed a decline until here were only 36 in 1940. Approximately one third were businessmen living in Rabaul, while the remainder were plantation managers and fishermen who lived mainly in Manus, New Ireland and Bougainville. In particular,