The Mysterious Loot
The tales of the Second World War are aplenty but how many of us have heard of the supposed treasure trove the Japanese buried in the Philippines? ASIAN Geographic digs deeper to understand the grand mystery surrounding Yamashita’s Gold.
In Cagayan Valley in the northeast of the Philippine island of Luzon, legend has it that there lies a great mass of stolen treasure – gold, jewels and priceless artefacts. These were allegedly accumulated by Japanese troops during World War II as the Japanese advanced and imposed their power through China and Southeast Asia.
As the Japanese defeat became all but certain in 1945, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda, head of the Kwantung Army – the largest and most prestigious group in the Japanese Imperial Army – ordered the construction of several underground tunnels dug into the mountains of the Philippines to stow the stash of their stolen wealth. The operation was codenamed ‘Golden Lily’ and the notorious General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who was stationed in the Philippines, was tasked with constructing one of the tunnels labelled number eight. The whole operation was an attempt to keep their stolen fortune away from the sight of the Allied powers.
It is also believed that the soldiers and prisoners of war who constructed the underground tunnels and moved the stash there were deliberately trapped in the tunnels and left to die. This way Yamashita managed to restrict knowledge on the location of the stash, allowing it to remain elusive.
The stash that has come to be known as ‘Yamashita’s Gold’ has attracted huge interest from both enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists, leading to myriad differing accounts about the whereabouts of the loot. One of them is the idea that American forces discovered the stash and used it to finance the Cold War.
Of course, that doesn’t stop treasure hunters across the globe from embarking on expeditions to look for the treasure trove. They are convinced the stash still exists today even though it has been more than 70 years since the loot was supposedly hidden.
One prominent expedition is that of Rogelio Roxas, a former Filipino soldier, who claimed to have found a large portion of gold along with a golden buddha in the tunnels in 1971. However, when news of his finds were exposed, he alleged that he was imprisoned and abused by exiled former president of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos. It was rumoured that Marcos imposed very strict control of the search and excavation efforts by authorising each and every one of them. Marcos reportedly found the hidden loot and pocketed gold bars and other treasure worth tens of billions of dollars. Roxas claimed that the items he found were stolen from his house by Marcos and his wife and eventually filed a lawsuit against the duo. However, even this high profile case could not confirm the existence of the treasure as the judge found insufficient evidence.
The fact that many who went to search for the treasure came back with nothing, the lack of stories of discoveries and absence of documentation of its whereabouts all point to the lack of evidence that the treasure exists.
“They are convinced the treasure still exists today and press on to locate its site even though it has been more than 70 years since the loot was supposedly hidden.”
Treasure hunters who hunt for the rumoured treasure have also damaged historical sites and significant archaeological sites that have no relation to where the treasure is supposed to be. One such site is the Ayub Cave in South Cotabato, Mindanao, an important site containing ancient pottery and human remains. The entrance to the cave was bulldozed, resulting in the collapse of cave walls and thus the loss of artefacts.
Till this day, treasure hunters are still looking for the hidden stash. If it does exist, the Japanese surely did a great job in keeping it a secret. ag