Yamashita’s Gold: The Philippine Treasure Caves

Japan Plundered Asia – Before/During World War II

It is a known fact that Japan had plundered Asia in the years before and during the World War II. As per legend, they had amassed a genuine fortune for themselves. A special team known as `The Golden Lily’ had been formed who’s main aim was to plunder the invaded countries.

There had been plenty of confiscated treasure which needed a full time attempt of transporting all of it back to Japan. Initially, the Philippines was utilised as a layover spot for the plundered treasure to be loaded onto ships for the last leg of the journey. The American forces posed as a problem for Japan when they began sinking a number of the ships on the high seas.

The royal family of Japan decided to hide the remaining loot in the Philippines and it is here where General Yamashita tends to come in.Yamashita had been given the task of organizing and implementing the plans of digging tunnels and locate caves in which they could hide all the plundered goods together with the other items. The Japanese soldiers and prisoners of war would dig out tunnels and move the hideaways in them.

Various Theories – Whereabouts of Treasure

However, when the gold had been transferred, the entrances had been covered up usually through explosive devices which left the labourers trapped within to die. Several theories have been coming up regarding the whereabouts of the treasure over the years.

According to one theory, Ferdinand Marcos, ex-president of the Philippines, had found a portion of the treasure and had kept it for himself. He undertook severe control in searching and excavating during his term, wherein he had to personally support each expedition. In 1971, one particular expedition was led by Rogelio Roxas who claimed that he had found a huge cache of gold in a cave.

He had brought a lawsuit against Marcos and his wife asserting that when his discovery had been known to Marcos, he had been beaten and arrested after which his gold had been taken away by his men. The suit which had been filed in the state of Hawaii ultimately was found in favour of Roxas stating that there was adequate evidence to indicate that he had indeed found the gold which had been taken away from him and was awarded $6 million.

Debate on Uncertainty of Gold

Some other researchers and historians had claimed that the US had been given the location of the treasure in exchange for not being charged against the royal family for war crimes together with other outrages. It is said that the CIA and the OSS had received most of the gold that had been used to fund those agencies.

Several are sceptical and tend to doubt the presence of the treasure of Yamashita or argue about the amounts presumed to exist. They debate on the uncertainty of gold as claimed by history;there would be several more levels of discovery.

In spite of many claims by treasure hunters and Filipino natives to the opposing, there has been little or no evidence of any gold found. Though there has been no proof of any of these claims, Roxas’s story is possibly the closest anyone could get in having the story authenticated.