@romanigypsyeyes :
I would agree with you, but not when it is to the level you are talking about, we are talking hundreds of documents that aren’t there, and though they didn’t say it outright, it implies they were told that they were still being kept secret. Individual documents, maybe, a couple of hundred? Government security is always a wacked out thing, my guess about why this stuff is hidden is either because they feel it would make the government look bad, or they are doing it not to embarass the Japanese, especially where Japan these days has an ultra nationalist ruling the country (Abe shares the view of many in Japan that the empire did nothing wrong and everything with the war was the US’s fault.)…it could also be simple government inertia, like with the NSA with the blue box that broke the japanese codes or the Colossus machine that was under the official secrets act until almost into the 21st century, both of which were obsolete by the end of the war, yet they made it seem like they were life or death secrets for all those years…
My take is if in fact they knew Earhardt was alive and in the custody of the Japanese, they don’t want it coming out because it would be embarassing both to the US and the Japanese government. One of the thing about a lot of stuff that stays classified is that it stays that way, not because it is dangerous or sensitive, but rather is often politically embarassing, that is pretty much why the Nixon administration tried to suppress the Pentagon papers, and this is often the case.