Amelia Earhart Theory Challenged by Japanese History Enthusiast

A week after a new theory about Amelia Earhart’s 1937 disappearance made waves, a Japanese blogger has produced evidence that seems to debunk its credibility.

Investigators working on a History Channel special about the iconic aviator posited that a photo found in a National Archives file depicted Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock in the Marshall Islands, with a ship towing her plane in the background. As TIME noted when the theory was put forward, they theorized that the photo could mean that Earhart did not perish in a crash, but was instead rescued by a Japanese ship.

However, as a Japanese blogger pointed out in a post on Tuesday, the photo in question was published in a 1935 photo book, which means it “was taken at least two years before Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937.”

As NPR reports, the photo book has been digitized online, and its publication date is listed as Showa 10 — in other words, the tenth year of the Showa period, or 1935.

The History Channel told NPR that it is investigating the evidence.

[NPR]