American Icon Amelia Earhart Survived & Captured by the Japanese?!

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Source: National Archives

A new special documentary that is airing on the History Channel this Sunday , July 9, 2017 called, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," claims that Amelia Earhart not only landed safely and survived, but was captured by the Japanese in the Marshall Islands.

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Source: National Archives

The picture was found in the National Archives by an investigative team from the History Channel. They believe that someone that was spying for the U.S. took the photo. The Japanese government was notified, but they stated that they have no record of Amelia Earhart every being captured.

The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline.

"The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," said Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent."

Gibson added: "It's my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan."

"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special.

The executive producer believes that Amelia Earhart and Noonan died while being imprisoned in Saipan. The U.S. government knew that they were both captured, but never said anything about it.

The locals in the Marshall Islands have been saying for decades that the plane had crashed and that the Japanese took them as prisoners of war.

The photo in the upper right hand of the original photo shows the Japanese Barge, the Koshu, towing something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane.