Background of Japanese Treasures

PART I

This attempt to share a history, is just an attempt. It is so difficult to be factual about the history because this is one of the biggest secrets in the history of WWII, the Holocust being the biggest of all.

Historical information on Japanese treasure is not, again I would say, not exact. It was featured twice on National Geographic in 2003/04.  Some of the best accounts on the Yamashita Treasure were “The Sterling Seagrave’s”; “The Marcos Dynasaty”; a Faucette Columbine Book, published by Ballantin Books in 1988.

On top of those already known, I want to share from some other treasure hunters who also wrote their own accounts. One is from the workbook of Jimmy R.McCormick, Treasure Hunting in the Philippines which was handed to me by a friend Malou from Pasay City as an exchange for some information I had which she did not have. McCormick had researched for more than 20 years and was generous enough to share his workbook with friends.

Another is from Jim Brown who spent more than 30 years in this country, spent time and money and hope that one day the three-book series will be sold and he and his wife could make more from it. Unfortunately none of his books were published. Mainly, he lived in fear because he believes he has so much information that top officials will run after him.

Another American treasure hunter, known as “Jones, the buyer” spent his time entertaining Filipino hunters and verifying treasure finds. He share a lot, likes to educate new treasure hunters, has tons of information, but he does not like writing them down.

And still another one source is from Glen Tolentino, a single Filipino mestizo, educated and intelligent young man who lives somewhere in Sta. Ana, Manila, lent us
a compilation about an inch thick of Japanese Markings.

Three of them are Americans and have stayed long in the Philippines and died in the Philippine soil. All of them married Filipina girls much younger than their ages. The ladies are their ears and provided them the understanding of the Filipino culture. Some Americans could hardly detect if the Filipino is merely extracting money from them or they are for real. So their women provide them that assistance other than, keeping the house for them and having benefits of being a home-mate.

Fortunately, we had a chance to be privy to the lives of the treasure hunters, Jim and Jones. All three claim that these tons and tons of gold were from the gold reserves of European countries. As Germans began to aggressively move towards their country, they moved their gold reserves to the Far East before the breakout of World War II. The Japanese knowing where the treasures are in Asia, they invaded the Asian countries such as China, Korea, Malaysia and Philippines, and looted their treasures. A large quantity was brought to the Philippines.

As the battle was turning against the Japanese armies, Yamashita attempted to load some of the gold and ship them back to Japan. However, it was too late as the American Fleet had sunk most of the cargo ships (Japanese ships). For a long while, the Japanese kept the gold to have a better control of the reserves/treasures.

To quote from the workbook of Jim McCormmick, “In this respect, near the end of the war, General Yamashita ordered ech of his military Commanders to distribute various volumes of these treasures down to the Command level Officers where it would still be manageable, yet where responsible people were charged with specific guidelines with engineering support to mark, bury and map each site for historical purposes.”
“Most documents disgree on the actual amount buried by General Yamashita and his Commanders because the documentation were not submitted or returned to the central repository for military record.” Or their Japanese troops assigned to bury the treasures did not survive the traumas of war. Backgrond of Japanese Treasure in the Philippines by Jim R. McCormmick, page 5.

But the amount buried and agreed upon by treasure hunters is a staggering figure, maybe as much as 500.000 metric tons of gold bars. And of course we have heard of many ex-Japanese soldiers from WWII return to the Philippines, and visit sites year after year. From 1946 up to late 70’s, numerous local groups from the Philippines have also attempted to locate these treasures. We hear that only a small number of treasure hunters have become successful in this endeavour. We hear that those who have had some success are those living in burial sites or where the Japanese officers encamped for a long period of time.

In 1972, Marcos declared Martial Law and treasure hunting was placed under the direct control at the very top. During 1972 to 1986 unclear accounts indicate that approximately one-forth of these vast amounts of treasures were uncovered. Some say it is purely speculative. But if this were true at least 250,000 metric tons of treasure is still waiting out there. To this day, there has not been an account of newly uncovered treasures.

Seagrave accounts that “With the Japanese conquest of East and Southeast Asia, the Japanese had come to loot beyond dreams. Gold and gems were confiscated from private citizens, churches, temples, banks, monasteries, corporations and fallen governments – an from the gangster syndicates and black money economies of each nation. After Korea and Manchuria, loot came from China, Indochina, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, Borneo, Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies; A vast hoard of gems, jewelry, gold Buddhas, bullion, public and personal treasures.”

Seagrave also mentions that much of these treasure form East and Southeast Asia came from “illegal funds, unreported assets, illegal earnings, criminal profits, black market proceeds, secrete hoards of gems and precious metals and other forms of black money that existed in Asia (back then.) Seagrave’s references are from several sources it is worth quoting his material.