Yamashita's Gold

[Queenie O.]

As I have told you all before, our house is by the sea, and the island of Leyte can be seen across the way on the horizon. When we moved to this land, in what was to be the front yard, was a huge and knobby rock that seemed part of the surrounding rocky landscape. The workers that were employed seemed enthusiastic about breaking it down for us, and getting it out of the way. My husband tended to agree with them that it was taking up a lot of room, but I liked it and wanted to keep it right where it was. It's still there now, covered with a planted Viet Nam rose rose ground cover carpet, but otherwise looking rather innocuous. Later on over time, we were told by many, that this particular rock was thought to be one of the legendary and mysterious "Yamashita Treasure" rocks.

From my limited knowledge of this history, gold and treasures were looted during World War II, and hidden in secret locations to later help with the Japanese war effort. General Yamashita Tomoyuki, was the leader in charge when the Philippines was invaded by the American soldiers. He was later charged with war crimes and hung in the Philippines. The location of these legendary hidey holes remain a secret that died with General Yamashita I'll never know what lies if anything, secreted in this huge rock in our yard.:) I'd rather keep the mystery and legend alive:)

One day we were having breakfast, and looked out to see what appeared to be a fisherman, dragging a small sinking fishing boat through the water. On closer inspection, it seemed to be a foreigner?--so we went down to the sea wall to meet him and offer him some cold water. Come to find out he was a young expat from California who had fallen on hard times, and had just now sunken a borrowed fishing boat, while fishing for some future lunch. We talked and later over lunch that we served him, he told us what after a while seemed to be some "tall tales" about his many misfortunes while living in various towns in Cebu over two or three years. While eyeing my big rock, he told us that he had lost a lot of his savings initially by his fruitless search for the "Yamashita Treasure". We never got together with him again, and was told later by Filipinos' who knew him, that he had since moved on.

I guess there are stories of the folly of many expats and other foreigners who have searched for these hidden treasures. Have any of you folks been enticed by this legend, or known foreigners who were involved with such ventures? I guess many a scam among locals and foreigners has surrounded this search too. Please share any knowledge and stories that you might have heard with us.:)

Queenie

[Queenie O.]

Sorry about the spelling of the general's name and title--it just kept coming up that way and wouldn't edit for some reason.

Queenie

[earthdome]

I have heard stories of Japanese 'tourists' with rented helicopters searching parts of the northern luzon mountains for buried cache's of gold. Rumor is that some Japanese soldiers buried caches of gold when the allies invaded but could not retrieve them before the Japanese were driven off Luzon. The Japanese 'tourists' are relatives of those soldiers searching for the buried cache's of gold. Somewhat believable since there is gold mining in those mountains and there was a japanese occupation in the area where the gold mines were.

[jon1]

A friend of mine got tricked into buying some of Yamashita's gold (in his early days here, luckily he only lost $3000 for a brass bar)... I ran across this fiction book https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Triangle-Shipwreck-Adventures-Christine-ebook/dp/B00IO3TZ6U a couple of years ago, loosely based on the Yamashita treasure legend. It's a nice yarn..

[Jollygoodfellow]

8 hours ago, Queenie O. said:

Sorry about the spelling of the general's name and title--it just kept coming up that way and wouldn't edit for some reason.

Queenie

It was because part of the title or word was blocked by the profanity filter. 

[Old55]

THere is a long running scam offering "Japanese" gold bars found that must be sold cheap because... (insert interesting long complicated story in a hushed voice but you must act now).

There are syndicates that actively dig sites because someone's dead relative (or whatever) saw the Japs hide it there. We knew a Brit who owned Davliz resort on Sogod bay. One day a well armed and organized group dig a huge deep hole in their beach. The local officials told Dave to just ignore them as they were very serious and dangerous. In this case the resort was located on a known small Japanese Navy outpost. The JIN had seaplanes based in that area as well.

 

[Queenie O.]

3 hours ago, jon1 said:

A friend of mine got tricked into buying some of Yamashita's gold (in his early days here, luckily he only lost $3000 for a brass bar)... I ran across this fiction book https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Triangle-Shipwreck-Adventures-Christine-ebook/dp/B00IO3TZ6U a couple of years ago, loosely based on the Yamashita treasure legend. It's a nice yarn..

Jon I guess there are books and even a couple of movies made about this topic. That one sounds interesting..

[Kuya John]

Queenie,

Thanks for the story,if I do decide to purchase a lot, I've just found out the best way to have it dug over. 

[Mike S]

It was reported that when Marcos was president he found or rather confiscated a large quantity of the Japanese stolen loot .... look it up n the internet and enjoy many hours of fascinating reading ....

Never been bit by the treasure hunting bug here but when I lived in Florida I spent more than a few weekends on the out-laying islands around Charlotte Harbor searching for pirate treasure as well as countless hours in libraries pouring over old books and manuscripts .... met many a colorful character including L. Frank Hudson an author of 4 books on Florida treasures .... also a diver who worked for Treasure Salvors (owned by Mel Fisher) who had to resign due to a busted ear drum before they found the Atocha .... and a few more .... it was fun but definitely a young mans game .... no fun sleeping on a 20ft high shell mound in the middle of no-where ..... miles from civilization and only reachable by boat .... ahhhhhhhh ... those were the days

[MikeSwede]

27 minutes ago, Mike S said:

met many a colorful character including L. Frank Hudson an author of 4 books on Florida treasures ....

There is the real treasure; author one of those "tell a pirates tale of treasures" and you'll make a small fortune, hehe.