If you have a TV or a Facebook account, you've probably already seen that shocking new photo that “proves” Amelia Earhart was captured by Japan.

The History Channel did a whole show on it, everyone on social media has been posting about it, and it’s basically THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER or something.

Is it, though?

I first saw a different version of the now-famous “dock photo” on Twitter, when user Samantha Adams (@MsSamAdams) shared it after it was tweeted by Kiyo Marco T (@SamuraiK7).

Apparently, this Japanese Travelogue book titled The Life Line of the Sea My Figure of the South Sea: South Seas Archipelago Photo Book also contains the newly discovered dock photo that “proves” Earhart’s capture.

The only problem? It predates her disappearance by a couple of years.

The National Diet Library of Japan is, of course, in Japanese, but Google Translate provides a publication date of 1935 for the book. Amelia Earhart wouldn’t go missing until two years later, on July 2, 1937.

National Diet Library of Japan
National Diet Library of Japan
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This blog post from Twitter user @baron_yamaneko dated Sunday, July 9, 2017 is likely the first mention of the photo in the 1935 book. (It's in Japanese, so you'll probably need Google Translate.)

What do you think? Either the new “dock photo” is genuine and provides compelling evidence that Earhart was captured, or the same photo appearing in a travel book two years earlier disproves everything.

Did you get swept up in all the excitement around the new photo? What do you make of this new twist?

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