Yamashita's gold
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Yamashita's gold refers to the supposed billions of dollars in loot that were stolen from East and Southeast Asia by Japan during World War II and hidden in the Philippines. Many people believe the reports of hidden treasure to be an urban legend, but the theory has its supporters among some respected researchers and historians. There are still many treasure hunters who comb the Philippine countryside in search of the treasure.
The "gold" is believed to have been anything from gold bullion to religious statues. The theory is that the treasure from Asia was to finance Japan's war effort. The treasure had to be transported from the continent back to Japan, via the sea. Most of the stolen treasure from South East Asia was first shipped to the port of Singapore, where it was then relayed to the Philippines. From the Philippines, it was intended, the treasure would be shipped to the Japanese home islands.
However, as the Pacific War progressed, Allied submarines and aircraft took a heavy toll on Japan's shipping. The Japanese then took the treasure and hid it in caves and underground complexes throughout the Philippines, hoping to recover it after the war was over. However, many of those who knew of the locations of the loot were either executed or incarcerated for war crimes, including General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the general in charge of the Philippines, and alleged ringleader of the operation. Thus, the whereabouts of the treasure were lost. Many years later, Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos claimed to have discovered the location of the treasure, and to have deposited it in secret bank accounts. These hoards are known collectively as the "Marcos gold". There is, however, a counter-allegation that Marcos invented the story, as a cover for his thefts from the Filipino national treasury.
In the eyes of some historians, a 2003 book Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave, has both revived the credibility of the story and added to it. The Seagraves have alleged a complex operation by US intelligence operatives to suppress awareness of the loot, and to locate and use it to finance covert operations around the world. The Seagraves have supported their claims with CD-ROMs containing 900 megabytes of documents, maps and photographs.
A number of fictional creations have involved or made mention of Yamashita's Gold. Among them are the computer game Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon, Clive Cussler's novel Dragon, and a Filipino film, Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure [1] (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0310368/combined).