A much-abused and over-extended tale in the Philippine cultural landscape is the supposed existence of the Japanese treasure. This narrative was given currency and linked to Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the ‘Tiger of Malaya,’ was tried and convicted of war crimes in Manila on Dec. 7, 1945, and hanged on Feb. 23, 1946 at Los Baños, Laguna.
That Yamashita had reached Philippine shore was promptly equated by wags with the transfer of golden hordes the Japanese plundered from Buddhist temples, private collections, and state depositories in China and other Southeast Asian countries where the military officer, who graduate from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, had left his ignominious mark.
The tale of Yamashita’s gold chest heightened after the war when stories of crude maps carrying ‘x’ markings became staple of rumors and the source of occupation for people who prey on the ignorants. As if on cue, new stories, mostly coming out of thin year, started to pervade the small realm of treasure hunters who were gullible enough to swallow hook, line and sinker every loose talk peddled as the fishmonger’s claim.
On the side, the tale spawned a multi-billion entertainment industry. In 2001, there was a parallel Filipino film entitled Yamashita: The Tiger’s Treasure, the American TV series Unsolved Mysteries, a console game known as the Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, the novels Dragon, The Garden of Evening Mists, and The Mystery of Yamashita’s Map (2007), a TV show titled Yamashita’s Treasure, and a horror film Dead Mine, all woven around the treasure narrative.
In Davao, which was home to the largest pre-war concentration of Japanese outside their homeland, this story of gold buried meters deep inside concrete slabs persists to this day. Complete with maps, markings, landmarks, etc., this assertion has become used in fleecing and fooling idiots of their hard-earned money. With people willing to part with their hard-earned money in the hope of finding the gold horde, historical landmarks have been desecrated, lands damaged by digs, and residential structures ruined by underground tunnels.
Worse, many archaeological sites were not spared from the greed. And if we believe the rumor-mongers, the list of people that benefitted from Yamashita’s stolen wealth includes even the name of President Rodrigo Rodrigo, Davao City’s mayor for more than two decades. Adding color to these claims are the conspiracy theories woven by irresponsible reports in media.
But Piers Kelly, a linguistic anthropologist at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, disputed the existence of the World War II treasure, saying the tale is a continuance of the pre-war Filipino folklore. In The Journal of Folklore Research, he wrote:
“Since at least the nineteenth century, Filipino story-tellers have shared tales of hidden valuables such as gold, church bells, silver coins and fine tableware. By tracing variations of this story, we were able to show that their popularity coincides with periods of war and crisis. The promise of future wealth may have served to boost local morale.”
He explained that Filipinos, in order to justify, albeit wrongly, the sudden wealth acquired by a neighbor, point to the discovery of the Yamashita treasure as the answer, adding that in the context of globalization, the lost-treasure stories “are also exchanged as a way of challenging a cultural ‘inferiority complex’ and of restoring a sense of national pride.”
In some account, the Yamashita gold is linked to the Legend of Gold Lily, which reportedly fell into the hands of the Americans just as the war as on its tail-end. The horde was kept “in a huge tunnel complex dug by the Japanese at the Cagayan Valley in the Philippines. Inside the tunnel [were] treasures of a staggering proportion.” This tall tale was woven by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave in their book ‘Gold Wars’. An internet article explains the claim more succinctly:
“Labeled tunnel 8, this was just one of 175 tunnels dotted around the Japanese occupied islands of the Philippines. Each filled with billions of dollars worth of gold, jewels and priceless statues and art… That night in early June 1945, with Japan’s war against the Americans about to be lost, General Yamashita hurriedly oversaw the last burials of gold and treasure.
“Prince Takeda, of the Japanese Royal family, had helped devise and build the tunnels to hide the treasure. They called the operation ‘Golden Lily’ after a poem written by Emperor Hirohito. Each site was carefully constructed using a host of specialist engineers along with enslaved Filipinos and allied POWS forced into backbreaking labor in the searing heat.
“That night, Takeda took all 175 of his staff into a bunker in tunnel 8 to celebrate their latest achievement. After several hours of drink and song, Takeda and Yamashita quietly slipped away. The tunnel’s entrance was then blasted with dynamite and sealed. The men inside, if they did not commit suicide, were left to suffocate to death taunted by the vast riches surrounding them. The slave laborers suffered the same fate. Takeda and Yamashita did not enjoy their grim work, but they had no alternative — it was the only way to be certain the location of the treasure houses would not get out.
“Prince Takeda fled back to Japan by submarine. Yamashita took what was left of his army to the north of the country where he held on against overwhelming American opposition before surrendering on September the 2nd… American intelligence had already learned of the incredible Japanese plunder before the end of the war. Undercover operatives had tracked boats disguised as hospital ships to the Philippines and watched as the treasure was unloaded. For the Americans, the loot was fair game. Asian gold was largely unaccounted for in international finance, and the possibility of it falling under communist control had to be avoided at all cost.”
If this is not fantastic, what is?
