During World War II, the Japanese fascists, under the direction of Emperor Hirohito, plundered wealth in Asian countries, and the location of some treasures remains a secret to this day, including a 6,000-ton gold hoard in the Philippines.
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Illustrative image.
The Daily Mail recently reported that Filipino treasure hunters detonated explosives to open a flooded cave. Beneath the mud inside the cave were gold bars that the divers believe are part of the legendary Yamashita treasure.
Video shows Filipino treasure hunters discovering gold in a flooded cave.
According to L’Express, after the end of World War II, two American journalists, Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave, launched an 18-year investigation into the secret of the enormous treasure plundered by the Japanese army during the war. Information about this investigation was documented in their book “Gold Warriors,” published in 2002.
The Lily Plan
Throughout the years of spreading fear across Asia during World War II, the Japanese fascists carried out a secret plan called “Golden Lily.” The plan was directly commanded by Prince Yasuhito, the younger brother of the Emperor.
The plan’s objective was to plunder all the wealth in Asian countries and transport it back to Japan to develop its economy and war industry. Historians estimate that the amount of gold looted by the Japanese army may have reached 100,000 to 300,000 tons.
The plan was implemented comprehensively across all areas. Intelligence and reconnaissance forces were deployed to various locations to investigate the situation, specific sites, and places with abundant wealth. The Emperor also dispatched a large number of experts in gold, silver, and antiquities appraisal to classify the treasures.
It is estimated that in just a few years, the Japanese fascists plundered countless riches, from thousands of tons of gold in China and rare ancient Buddha statues in Myanmar to precious stones in Indonesia and pottery in Korea.
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Japanese soldiers at a village on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, in 1937. Photo: L’Epress.
According to statistics, the Japanese army confiscated 6,000 tons of gold in Nanjing (China) alone, not including other treasures. This gold was melted down, cast into gold bars, and transported back to Japan.
Following the decisive Allied victory at the Battle of Midway in 1942, Japan’s naval power significantly diminished. As a result, Allied submarines were able to easily disrupt Japan’s supply routes. The Japanese then resorted to burying their treasures in Asian countries, planning to transport them back to Japan later.
In Vietnam, there are rumors that Mount Tau is the hiding place of a 4,000-ton gold treasure belonging to the Japanese fascists during World War II.
Yamashita’s Treasure
Under the supervision of members of the imperial family, General Yamashita Tomoyuki, the Japanese fascist commander in the Philippines, was tasked with constructing underground vaults to store secret treasures.
When the American forces tightened their encirclement in the Philippines in June 1945, just a few dozen kilometers from the Japanese camp, the task of burying the gold hoard on the outskirts of Bambang city was completed.
The Japanese army held a lavish feast around the piles of gold. At midnight, General Yamashita and members of the Japanese imperial family secretly left the vault and detonated mines placed at the entrance. All the engineers and workers who had been working there for months were buried alive. A similar assassination plan was carried out at all the other burial sites.
Ben Valmores, a servant of Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi, was the only one lucky enough to escape death thanks to his master letting him out before the mines exploded. “Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi saved me and got me out of Cell No. 8 before the mines exploded,” Ben said.
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General Yamashita Tomoyuki, commander of the Japanese fascist forces in the Philippines.
The Japanese prince was then secretly picked up by submarine and taken back to Japan. The war ended at the same time that General Yamashita surrendered to the Allied forces. He was executed by a US military court for war crimes committed on February 23, 1946. Throughout his captivity, Yamashita never revealed a word about the treasure he had buried.
Based on intelligence and General Yamashita’s large-scale construction plans, the American military knew for certain that the Japanese fascists had buried a huge amount of wealth in the Philippines. The investigation yielded some results by October 1945.
The administration of then-US President Harry S. Truman secretly ordered the excavation of the suspected area. According to information revealed by two American journalists, the amount of wealth found by the US military in the Santa gold vault is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars . Meanwhile, the total amount of wealth buried by the Japanese fascists in the 145 secret tunnels and caves that the two journalists cataloged could reach trillions of dollars.
The US government used its gold, silver, and jewels to establish a secret fund to finance intelligence operations against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Later, the CIA also used this fund to finance opposition forces attacking the Nicaraguan government. This scandal was exposed during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
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Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos once claimed to possess a vast fortune thanks to the Yamashita treasure.
Furthermore, during his time in power in the Philippines, the late President Ferdinand Marcos claimed to possess a vast fortune thanks to the Yamashita gold mine. Marcos was overthrown in 1986 and had to flee to Hawaii to live in exile.
In 1992, widow Imelda Marcos reaffirmed that her husband had found 4,000 tons of gold in the Yamashita gold hoard.
The Yamashita gold hoard was the subject of a complex lawsuit filed in a Hawaiian court in 1988. The dispute, which involved former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and treasure hunter Rogelio Roxas, concluded in 1996 with a ruling ordering the Marcos family to pay up to $40 billion in compensation.
According to L’Express, the Hawaiian courts are so far the only body to recognize the existence of the Yamashita treasure.