Time to open my mail. I had a few interesting responses or questions from readers recently.

Several asked what I think of the photo that surfaced recently purportedly showing that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan had been captured by the Japanese in 1937.

Personally, I don’t believe it. The most compelling evidence for me is her radio transmissions, which were recorded by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca at Howland Island, as it waited for them.

Earhart and Noonan’s radio transmitter worked fine, but they had lost the receiver taking off from New Guinea. Their transmissions got stronger and stronger, the Itasca noted, which tells me they were nearby, not 350 miles away in Micronesia or elsewhere.

Howland is only about a mile by half-mile in size and Earhart said she could not see it. It was overcast. The trip from New Guinea to Howland was the longest leg of their journey, at 2,556 miles. If she couldn’t find the tiny island quickly, she wouldn’t have much time to look for it.

I believe their plane went down within 25 miles of Howland Island and now rests beneath 15,000 feet of water. I wrote more about her on July 6, 2012.

LOONEY TUNES CHRISTMAS

City Square owner Glenn Kaya wrote to me about voice actor Mel Blanc, who was the subject of a column on July 2. Blanc was the voice of dozens of cartoon characters.

“Mel and his wife were good friends of mine,” Kaya said. “Many years ago there was an article in our local newspaper about a young boy who was critically ill and would not make it to year end.

“I was running Gem stores in Hawaii at the time and I wanted to give this young boy a Christmas in July. I supplied the toys and gifts, but I wanted one thing more. I asked Mel Blanc to call this young boy in his many voices, such as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, when the delivery of gifts was made.

“He did it without any charge. This is the kind of the human being he was. He was one of the finest gentleman I’ve known and a great humanitarian.”

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I wrote about the Armed Services YMCA on July 9. Alvin Yee told me that when President Harry Truman left the White House in early 1953, he came to Hawaii to spend some time on Coconut Island in Kaneohe, where he was photographed wearing an aloha shirt. I wrote about that on Dec. 19, 2014.

“Truman paid a courtesy call to Territorial Gov. Oren Long at Iolani Palace, where he remarked that he needed a haircut. The governor referred him to the Filipino barber at the Armed Services YMCA, where the governor also got his haircuts. Truman and his Secret Service guard walked over to the Y, where he waited his turn for a haircut.

Jim Muir said he was on the board of the Armed Services Y during the 1980s when the decision to sell was made.

“We knew the property was valuable and we planned to do a newer building at Schofield. Only after we had voted to sell and informed (YMCA headquarters in) Chicago of the plan did they tell us all the proceeds would revert to them. Sad.” (Most of the money had originally come from YMCA.)

Tom Beaupre wrote to tell me of a similar organization: “The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, a nonprofit organization, has provided financial assistance and other services to sailors and Marines continuously since 1904.”

Cary Moore recalled that one of Hawaii’s top restaurateurs, Peter Canlis, got his start as a fry cook at the Armed Services Y during World War II.

Canlis Broiler, on Kalakaua Avenue, was one of the top restaurants in Hawaii during the 1960s and ’70s. Even though it’s now gone, the family still has a seven-decades-old Seattle restaurant that is consistently rated in the top 20 in the country.

“He always chose good recipes and great architects for the buildings in which to cook,” Moore said. “I remember his wonderful Pete Wimberly-designed restaurant in Waikiki with waitresses dressed in kimonos.”

A RACE ‘WITH ALOHA’

Bob Hampton, who has provided several stories for this column already, offered one more. Hampton owned the Territorial Tavern downtown in the 1970s and now runs Waikiki Beach Activities at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The king of Morocco donated a fountain to Hawaii that is on the front lawn of the Hawaii State Art Museum, formerly the Armed Services YMCA, Hampton told me.

Morocco has a “sister state” relationship with Hawaii, according to Hampton. In December 2012, the relationship was celebrated with “His Majesty King Mohammed VI Week in Hawaii.” The monarch donated the fountain and had the tiles and his craftsmen flown in from Morocco to install it. You can see it from the Hotel Street sidewalk.

In addition to festivities that involved the governor and mayor, the king wanted to have a friendly competition. The king’s team was well known in the Mediterranean for surfing and windsurfing. Hampton’s Waikiki Beach Activities was asked to manage a friendly competition but the tradewinds were soft and the surf was flat.

“I recommended a stand-up-paddle relay race be held in Duke’s Lagoon instead. All agreed it was the best solution. When the king’s team members arrived, we gave them SUP boards and WBA Beach Boys worked one-on-one with them. We all felt they got it and that it was going to be a good competitive race.”

On race day, Dec. 1, the Moroccan team got cold feet.

“They wanted to drop out as their prince would be there and they were afraid they would embarrass him because they did not feel they could race competitively.

“That’s when I asked myself, ‘What would Duke Kahanamoku do?’”

Duke‘s creed of aloha came to me:

In Hawaii we greet friends, loved ones and strangers

with aloha, which means with love.

Aloha is the key word to the universal spirit of real

hospitality, which makes Hawaii renowned as the

world’s center of understanding and fellowship.

Try meeting or leaving people with aloha.

You’ll be surprised by their reaction.

I believe it and it is my creed.

Aloha to you.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku

“We are the hosts and we must show aloha to our Moroccan guests,” Hampton thought. “They have to win. We can’t embarrass them.

“I called my team captain and told him to mix up the teams. Take two of theirs and give them our two best paddlers. We are going to do a ‘Duke’s scramble.’”

“My team captain said, ‘we will lose,’ and I told him, ‘No, aloha will win.’ He thought about it and agreed.

“The Moroccan team won the SUP relay race and thanks to Duke, we all won. The Moroccans were thrilled.”

ITALIAN PRISONERS BUILD A LION

The Moroccan fountain at the Hawaii State Art Museum isn’t the only fountain donated to Hawaii. Former commander of the U.S. Army Pacific Command, Benjamin Mixon, told me the fountain at Fort Shafter was built by Italian prisoners of war, led by artisan Alfredo Giusti of Pietrasanta, Italy.

During World War II, more than 50,000 Italian POWs were captured by the Allies. That was a huge problem for the U.S. and it was decided to house them all over the country. Over 5,000 were sent to Sand Island in Hawaii in 1944.

They were tasked with nonmilitary labor projects, but a few had artistic skills and offered to build a fountain.

Giusti and others constructed a beautiful fountain near Palm Circle. The fountain base is hexagonal and the central two-tiered bowls are supported by the winged lion of St. Mark, according to the Fort Shafter website. Giusti’s name is inscribed on the fountain.

The Lion of St. Mark is the symbol of the city of Venice.

The fountain may look a little familiar to those who saw the movie “Pearl Harbor.” The fountain and Palm Circle appeared in it a few times.

After the war, the prisoners were repatriated.

Bob Sigall, author of “The Companies We Keep” series of books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him via email at sigall@yahoo.com.