Yamashita Lost Gold

[Brigitta Martini]

Yamashita's gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged war loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II and supposedly hidden in caves, tunnels, or underground complexes in different cities in the Philippines. It was named after the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, dubbed as "The Tiger of Malaya", who conquered Malaya within 70 days from the British. Though there are accounts that claim the treasure remains hidden in the Philippines and have lured treasure hunters from around the world for over 50 years, its existence has been dismissed by most experts.[1][2][3] The rumored treasure was the subject of a complex lawsuit that was filed in a Hawaiian state court in 1988 involving a Filipino treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, and the former Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos.[4]

Prominent among those who have argued for the existence of Yamashita's gold are Sterling Seagrave and his wife Peggy Seagrave, who wrote two books related to the subject: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family (2000) and Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold (2003). The Seagraves contend that looting, including more than 6000 tonnes of gold, was organized on a massive scale, by both yakuza gangsters such as Yoshio Kodama, and the highest levels of Japanese society, including Emperor Hirohito.[5] The Japanese government intended that loot from Southeast Asia would finance Japan's war effort.[5] The Seagraves allege that Hirohito appointed his brother, Prince Yasuhito Chichibu, to head a secret organization named Kin no yuri (金の百合, "Golden Lily"), after a poem that the Emperor Hirohito had written.[6][7] It is purported that many of those who knew the locations of the loot were killed during the war, or later tried by the Allies for war crimes and executed or incarcerated. Yamashita himself was convicted of war crimes and executed by the United States Army on February 23, 1946, in Los Baos, Laguna, the Philippines.[5]

According to the Seagraves, numerous Golden Lily vaults were found by Edward Lansdale and Severino Garcia Diaz Santa Romana[a] in caves north of Manila in the high valleys and the 'M-Fund [ja]', which was named after Major General William Marquat, was established from Santa Romano and Lansdale's work.[5][b] Sterling Seagrave alleged that Santa Romana (Santy) tortured Yamashita's driver Major Kojima Kashii to obtain the probable locations of the loot.[citation needed] The Seagraves wrote that Lansdale flew to Tokyo and briefed MacArthur and his Chief of Intelligence Charles Willoughby, later flew to the United States to brief Clark Clifford and returned with Robert Anderson to inspect several caves in Philippines with Douglas MacArthur. More than 170 tunnels and caves were found.[6] Ray Cline believes that both Robert Anderson and Paul Helliwell created 176 "black gold" banking accounts in 42 countries after moving the loot by ship to support future United States operations.[citation needed][c]

The stolen property reportedly included many different kinds of valuables looted from banks, depositories, other commercial premises, museums, private homes, and religious buildings.[5] It takes its name from General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who assumed command of the Japanese forces in the Philippines in 1944.

According to various accounts, the loot was initially concentrated in Singapore, and later transported to the Philippines.[5] The Japanese hoped to ship the treasure from the Philippines to the Japanese Home Islands after the war ended. As the War in the Pacific progressed, United States Navy submarines and Allied warplanes inflicted increasingly heavy sinkings of Japanese merchant shipping. Some of the ships carrying the war booty back to Japan were sunk in combat.

The Seagraves and a few others[5] have claimed that American military intelligence operatives located much of the loot; they colluded with Hirohito and other senior Japanese figures to conceal its existence, and they used it as "Black Gold" to finance American covert intelligence operations around the world during the Cold War. These rumors have inspired many hopeful treasure hunters, but most experts and Filipino historians say there is no credible evidence behind these claims.[1][11]

Many individuals and consortia, both Philippine and foreign, continue to search for treasure sites. A number of accidental deaths, injuries and financial losses incurred by treasure hunters have been reported.[14] The National Museum of the Philippines is responsible for the issuance of treasure hunting permits and licenses.[15]

Ricardo Trota Jose,[1] history professor from the University of the Philippines, has questioned the theory that treasure from mainland Southeast Asia was transported to the Philippines: "By 1943 the Japanese were no longer in control of the seas... It doesn't make sense to bring in something that valuable here when you know it's going to be lost to the Americans anyway. The more rational thing would have been to send it to Taiwan or China."[16]

Philippines National Historical Institute chairman and historian Ambeth Ocampo commented: "Two of the wealth myths I usually encounter are the Yamashita treasure and gossip that the Cojuangco fortune was founded on a bag of money..." Ocampo also said: "For the past 50 years, many people, both Filipinos and foreigners, have spent their time, money and energy in search of Yamashita's elusive treasure." Professor Ocampo noted "What makes me wonder is that for the past 50 years, despite all the treasure hunters, their maps, oral testimony and sophisticated metal detectors, nobody has found a thing."

In March 1988, a Filipino treasure hunter named Rogelio Roxas filed a lawsuit in the state of Hawaii against the former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos for theft and human rights abuses. Roxas claimed that in Baguio in 1961 he met the son of a former member of the Japanese army who mapped for him the location of the legendary Yamashita Treasure. Roxas claimed a second man, who served as Yamashita's interpreter during the World War II, told him of visiting an underground chamber there where stores of gold and silver were kept, and who told of a golden buddha kept at a convent located near the underground chambers. Roxas claimed that within the next few years he formed a group to search for the treasure, and obtained a permit for the purpose from a relative of Ferdinand, Judge Pio Marcos. In 1971, Roxas claimed, he and his group uncovered an enclosed chamber on state lands near Baguio where he found bayonets, samurai swords, radios, and skeletal remains dressed in a Japanese military uniform. Also found in the chamber, Roxas claimed, were a 3-foot-high (0.91 m) golden-colored Buddha and numerous stacked crates which filled an area approximately 6 feet x 6 feet x 35 feet. He claimed he opened just one of the boxes, and found it packed with gold bullion. He said he took from the chamber the golden Buddha, which he estimated to weigh 1,000 kilograms, and one box with twenty-four gold bars, and hid them in his home. He claimed he resealed the chamber for safekeeping until he could arrange the removal of the remaining boxes, which he suspected were also filled with gold bars. Roxas said he sold seven of the gold bars from the opened box, and sought potential buyers for the golden Buddha. Two individuals representing prospective buyers examined and tested the metal in the Buddha, Roxas said, and reported it was made of solid, 20-carat gold. It was soon after this, Roxas claimed, that President Ferdinand Marcos learned of Roxas' discovery and ordered him arrested, beaten, and the Buddha and remaining gold seized. Roxas alleged that in retaliation to his vocal campaign to reclaim the Buddha and the remainder of the treasure taken from him, Ferdinand continued to have Roxas threatened, beaten, and eventually incarcerated for over a year.[4]

In December 1969, rumors spread that gold bars had been found in the mountains about 40km away from Manila.In June 2018, local police arrested 17 people, including 4 Japanese, including a 15-year-old boy, and 13 Filipinos, for illegal mining on Capones Island for treasure.[citation needed]

On the 7 th of December 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, leading to the entry of the United States into the Second World War. Although the Japanese were militarily successful during the early part of the war, they were beginning to suffer defeats by May 1942, which meant that they were beginning to lose ground to the Americans. Additionally, the Americans also began sinking a number of Japanese ships, thus making any transfer of war booty back to Japan a risky business.

Others, however, are still hopeful that the treasure remains hidden somewhere in the Philippines. Perhaps one of the best known stories to keep this flame of hope burning is that of Rogelio Roxas, locksmith / poor farmer / head of a treasure hunting expedition, who found a solid gold statue of the Buddha. The precious artefact was confiscated by the late Ferdinand Marcos, a former President of the Philippines. A lawsuit was filed in the US, which was won by Roxas, though, he, unfortunately, was tortured and died under suspicious circumstances.

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