New Evidence Suggests Amelia Earhart Photo Was Taken 2 Years Before Disappearance

The History Channel announced Tuesday its plans to investigate the Amelia Earhart image it reportedly unearthed in the July 9 documentary, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Story." The investigation follows an interview conducted by the Guardian Tuesday with Japanese military blogger Kota Yamano, who debunked the photo after conducting his own investigation.

The debate around the photo purports that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were held captive by the Japanese, which led the History Channel to insinuate that Earhart and Noonan survived the crash.

Read: Amelia Earhart Expert Claims Newly Emerged Photo Is Fake

The History Channel broke the news of their upcoming investigation on Twitter, saying, "HISTORY has a team of investigators exploring the latest developments about #AmeliaEarhart and we will be transparent in our findings."

The network added, "Ultimately historical accuracy is most important to us and our viewers."

Yamano reportedly found the image inside of a photo book titled "Motoaki Nishino" at Japan's National Libray, claiming the debunking task took him 30 minutes to complete.

"I have never believed the theory that Earhart was captured by the Japanese military, so I decided to find out for myself," Yamano told the Guardian. "I was sure that the same photo must be on record in Japan. The photo was the 10th item that came up."

He added, "I was really happy when I saw it. I find it strange that the documentary makers didn’t confirm the date of the photograph or the publication in which it originally appeared. That’s the first thing they should have done."

A representative for the History Channel and Yamano did not immediately return International Business Times' request for comment.

Read: Did Amelia Earhart Survive Crash? A New Photograph Suggests She Didn’t Die In Crash

Yamano's debunking made waves after he shared his blog post on the alleged photo to Twitter, writing, "Hi, in my research photo #EarhartLostEvidence was originally published in 1935 in Palau. The person is not Amelia."

He also revealed in his blog that "the photograph was taken at least two years before Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 and a person on the photo was not her."

Yamano isn't the first person to discredit the History Channel's alleged Earhart photo. Ric Gillespie, the Executive Director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), quickly denounced the photo in a July 5 interview with TMZ. However, Gillespie took Yamano's discovery Tuesday as an opportunity to speak out on the History Channel's inaccurate findings.

"I find it amusing that the History Channel is 'launching an investigation' of this photo,'" Gillespie said in a statement issued to International Business Times. "They should have launched their investigation before they aired a television special claiming it is something it clearly is not."

"The History Channel show completely ignored the elephant in the room — the abundance of solid evidence TIGHAR has uncovered in twelve expeditions and over 28 years of scientific research," Gillespie added in a separate press release. "The evidence supports the hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan landed and died as castaways on Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island) in the Republic of Kiribati."

Gillespie pointed out that the photo isn't the only finding that is "factually inaccurate" in the History Channel's Earhart-inspired documentary. The amount of fuel in Earhart's plane and alleged eye witness accounts are among a long list of discoveries Gillespie claims the network reported incorrectly.

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