Yamashita's Treasure in the Philippines

[randy99]

Is there any truth to this widely told story?

Supposedly during World War II, the Japanese looted huge amounts of gold and other treasure from its occupied territories across Asia. There is another story that the Vatican and other European countries shipped out treasure to Asia to prevent its fall into Nazi hands. But this treasure wound up in Japanese hands.

When the Americans invaded the Philippines during the liberation General Yamashita divided his forces, each carrying enormous amounts of treasures. Some headed north, some to provinces around Manila.

Filipino slaves were said to have carried the bulk of the treasures and did lots of the digging, says Philippine legends about them.

The Filipinos were later killed, along with scores of Japanese soldiers, to ensure the treasures’ secrecy. Later, ranking Japanese soldiers reportedly returned to the country as tourists after the war and recovered some of the treasure.

Souls of those killed in the course of treasure hiding are said to be guarding them. So ghost stories accompany tales of the Yamashita treasures. They say, where ghosts of Japanese soldiers abound; there a treasure might be hidden.

These treasures named after General Yamashita are reputed to still have millions of tons in gold and huge amounts of jewels secured in deep dangerous conditions.

Tales are told of horrible Japanese poisons, bombs, booby traps and other "curses" protect the precious metals and jewels. A tiny amount of the stolen loot has been recovered by Marcos and other politicians. Some have made recoveries using secret agreements like the Japanese "friendship" projects do as alibis for Yamashita gold recoveries. Others follow with recoveries even now but keep their results top secret for fear of their lives.

[Chaos]

Such stories are told after every war. You´d be surprised (or perhaps not) about the stories which abound about Nazi gold or hidden Nazi "Wunderwaffen" hidden in all sorts of places - on the bottom of lakes, in abandoned mine shafts, in old bunkers, whatever...

Besides, people who spread rumours about "millions of tons of gold" have no freaking clue how much millions of tons actually weigh... or how much effort it is to transport them.

[Sledge]

If the Filipinos were killed, how are there stories about what they did?

[Ixion]

I have heard this story too. It is a very popular story among treasure hunters, like the Lost Dutchman's Mine.

[Moss]

Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon has those stories as part of the setting.

[fuelair]

If the Filipinos were killed, how are there stories about what they did?

Family members left behind who associated their dead/missing with the stories of hidden treasure.:(
Doing varients of the loads of hidden treasure (pirate, war)stories that occur the world over.

[Simon39759]

Is there any truth to this widely told story?
Supposedly during World War II, the Japanese looted huge amounts of gold and other treasure from its occupied territories across Asia. There is another story that the Vatican and other European countries shipped out treasure to Asia to prevent its fall into Nazi hands. But this treasure wound up in Japanese hands.
When the Americans invaded the Philippines during the liberation General Yamashita divided his forces, each carrying enormous amounts of treasures. Some headed north, some to provinces around Manila.
Filipino slaves were said to have carried the bulk of the treasures and did lots of the digging, says Philippine legends about them.
The Filipinos were later killed, along with scores of Japanese soldiers, to ensure the treasures’ secrecy. Later, ranking Japanese soldiers reportedly returned to the country as tourists after the war and recovered some of the treasure.
Souls of those killed in the course of treasure hiding are said to be guarding them. So ghost stories accompany tales of the Yamashita treasures. They say, where ghosts of Japanese soldiers abound; there a treasure might be hidden.
These treasures named after General Yamashita are reputed to still have millions of tons in gold and huge amounts of jewels secured in deep dangerous conditions.
Tales are told of horrible Japanese poisons, bombs, booby traps and other "curses" protect the precious metals and jewels. A tiny amount of the stolen loot has been recovered by Marcos and other politicians. Some have made recoveries using secret agreements like the Japanese "friendship" projects do as alibis for Yamashita gold recoveries. Others follow with recoveries even now but keep their results top secret for fear of their lives.


As far as I can tell, there is nothing in term of objective evidence to support this claim.
-Nobody seems to have found even part of the treasure and got public with it (you could argue that the Japanese officers wouldn't talk, but, with a treasure of such magnitude, it is quite likely that some part of the hoard would have been stumbled upon or that part would have been dropped during the transportation and so on).
-No credible witnesses handy, at this point it is only hearsay. Wouldn't you expect some officers to confess, even post-mortem through testament? Would't you expect some of their family to know about it and talk? Some slaves to manage sneaking out before being murdered?

On the other hand, we know that such rumours are common and we heard pretty much the same story before, from other wars so that support it being just a myth.

Furthermore, the location of the alleged treasure is weird, wouldn't you expect the Japanese to bring it back in Japan as soon as they can? Especially if, as in some versions of the story you report, it was slowly collected over time, why not slowly collect it directly in Japan?
And, if the treasure actually came from the Vatican, wouldn't Swiss constitute a better hiding place?


So, looking at the story, on one hand we have some elements that seem unlikely and we have a distinct lack of corroborative evidence. On the other hand we know that this kind of legend commonly pop up after wars and such...
So, it seems to me, that it is likely to be some post-war legend...

[paiute]

Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon has those stories as part of the setting.

Towards the end of Sinclair's Lanny Budd series, the protagonist (who was an art expert and had used that as cover for covert operations during the war) helps to recover treasures that the Nazi regime had hidden in caves and such.

[Skeptical Greg]

Yamashita's Treasure in the Philippines

Where are the reports from the original owners of this treasure ?

[Ohforf]

"millions of tons in gold" would be more than all the Gold in the World.

Total recoverable gold available (as of January 1984) from the evaluated mines and deposits is estimated at 819 million troy ounces.
Source : "The Worldwide Availability of Gold"
www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122624073/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

[I Ratant]

Towards the end of Sinclair's Lanny Budd series, the protagonist (who was an art expert and had used that as cover for covert operations during the war) helps to recover treasures that the Nazi regime had hidden in caves and such.
.
Many of those hidden Nazi treasures came to the states.
In 155mm artillery shell containers.
(There's a sequence in "Band of Brothers" showing loot getting shipped stateside as a matter of course.)
Our family received a lot of them from my Dad during his European tour.
Many were passed on the 102nd Cavalry archives in New Jersey.
And some we kept. :)