The Truth About Yamashita Gold

The Yashida

gold

is one of the greatest treasures ever known in today's currency. It represents more than a billion dollars worth of dolls. According to myth, this incredible fortune was amassed from the profits of ruthless Japanese plundering throughout Asia during World War II in order for an amateur treasure hunter to find the treasure. Gold becomes a lifelong obsession, but little did he know he had a powerful rival. One of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century. Marcos was undoubtedly a bully. He was a gangster. This is the extraordinary story of Roger Roos and the legend of Yamashita

gold

.

Yashida's gold is one of the greatest war loot stories in history. In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army successfully invaded all of Southeast Asia. As they advance, they ruthlessly plunder country after country and steal on a massive scale, reportedly unrivaled in military history. It's wealth beyond belief, people wouldn't believe how much 1 trillion US dollars is worth, so it's a mind-blowing amount. The mastermind running this covert operation codenamed Golden Lily is said to be Prince Chichibu, the Emperor's brother. This guy is brilliant. Prince Chichibu was. a perfect choice to head the Golden Lily because he wasn't just a military man, he was an Oxford scholar and brought an incredible amount of creativity and lateral thinking to how this complex process of completely looting Illy's golden agents will be carried out. .

They took everything from all the countries, left them with nothing, invaded them, took all their wealth and simply left them penniless, they were not only banks and financial institutions, but there were also museums, temples, art galleries, books weirdos, anything worth money, they knew. They knew where it was and how much it was worth and they took it. The looting of the Golden Li was so complete that they even targeted the underworld, the gangster world, the black markets and completely depleted them of anything of value, having a mass of treasures from everyone. shapes and sizes the mission of the golden lily is far from over, first they need to bring it back to Japan, they melt the gold into easy to move ingots, but this smelting also has a darker purpose when gold is made, stamped and you can tell where is. but when it's remelted you don't know where it came from, they wanted to stamp the little sign on the gold bars that the gold was actually made in Japan, then it would look like the gold was Japanese gold of Japanese origin.

The stolen gold is then taken to the Philippines, inventoried there, and sent to Japan by ship. The Philippines was chosen as the transportation hub for the Golden L because it was practically at the center of the vast Japanese empire during the first year of operations. L The transportation network runs like clockwork, but then the tide of war turns in June 1942. Japanese and American forces meet near the small island of Midway in the Pacific. In just 4 days, American forces SN five Japanese ships destroy 270 planes and kill 3,500 men the Japanese have lost control of the seas now it is too risky for them to send the gold home they need a new plan they turn to their best fighter General Tomy Yuki Yashida has an incredible track record no one has the reputation that he has and if anyone can pull him one out of the hat it would be him with the gold now stuck in the Philippines.

Yamashita is asked to invent a miracle. According to the story, he is told to hide the gold until it is safe to move it. He identifies 175 suitable burial sites. Throughout the Philippines they will hold the gold until the Japanese are once again victorious and the Philippines proves that it is the ideal place to hide this treasure. They put it in very, very isolated parts of the Philippines, mostly covered by very mountainous terrain and thick, thick jungle once you get there. If these tunnels were built, it would be virtually impossible to see that anything had ever been buried there due to the rate of growth in the jungle.

Yamashita orders detailed maps to be made of the exact location of each treasure vault and each map is carefully coded. These maps were made in an ancient Japanese dialect called Kji, a language that is between 1500 and 2000 years old and there were no topographical references on them, they used the ancient characters to represent certain landmarks unless you know the complex code, these Maps are meaningless and there are even more layers of security bombs, grenades, decoy walls that would lead you to another trap. The Golden Lily left nothing to chance and had a vast system of booby traps consisting of poisonous gas explosives.

Complex use of the water table, so if you don't know what you're doing you'll drown in your quest to reach the treasures, but the maps that were drawn highlighted where all those traps were if you didn't have a map and walked into one of these. treasure vaults. There's a good chance you won't make it out alive and to ensure all treasure vault locations remain top secret, the number of people in the no is ruthlessly kept to a minimum, they use prisoners of war or local slave labor to build the royal treasure vaults. and the people who are building it don't know why, but that's irrelevant, they're going to die anyway, so they usually get shot dead at the UNS place, but despite all of yashida's efforts, the gold is still not safe in October 1944, the Americans land in the Philippines the fighting that follows is the bloodiest of the Pacific War the fighting in the Philippines at the end of the war was extremely brutal Yamashita would fight to the last man for the emperor, but not even a master tactician like Yamashitaa can stop the The Americans advance The Philippines has over 7,000 islands and it is very, very difficult to defend them against an invading Yamashita force, as a great general would have known that he knew he could not hold the Philippines, everything What he could do was prolong the fight as long as possible. possible Yamashita needs time alone not yet finished burying the gold April 1945 the Japanese are losing the war in the Pacific Japanese General Tomy Yuki Yashida's priority now is to hide the looted gold while American naval forces continue to advance Yamashita is forced to retreat to the mountains around the northern city of Bajío, their systematic concealment of their National Treasure becomes less systematic and more panic, they need to do it immediately because they are about to suffer a defeat. 174 treasure vaults done and dusted, only one left.

Time is running out Yamashita orders the chief engineers to seal the final treasure vault. These engineers knew everything. They knew how the maps were made. They knew where the burial sites were. They knew how they were caught. What they don't know is that Yamashita has one. last move to protect the gold The story goes that while the engineers are carrying out his orders Yamashito seals the Vault, the engineers are still inside now they will be its Guardians for eternity 3 months later World War II ends General Yamashita is tried for crimes of war the commission finds you guilty accuses you and sentences you to death by hanging Yamashita takes the secrets of the gold to the grave there is only one other person who supposedly knows the whereabouts of the gold prince chichibu and in 1953 he dies of tuberculosis anyone Who knew something about this treasure now being dead?

It seems that Yamashita's gold is lost forever, but in the Philippines, after the horrors of war, the legend of Yamashita's gold lives on. There were many rumors that the Japanese had buried treasures all over the Philippines. almost a national obsession, everyone across the country knows it and everyone looks for it. Among those who grew up with stories about gold is a young Filipino locksmith, Rilio Rojas, better known as Roger, is born in 1943 just as Yamashita's gold is being buried in Roger. childhood was really difficult Philippines is extremely impoverished his family is impoverished Roger is one of the millions of Filipinos who grew up in the shadow of World War II the war had devastated the Philippines Manila was absolutely on its knees like no other city in the world The entire World War II, apart from Warsaw, was terrible, hundreds of thousands of families killed, disintegrated, desperate poverty, no real economy functioning, um, it was in a really bad state, it was no surprise that the legend of Yash's gold just If you take Roger from memory at a very young age, someone so poor with the potential for wealth beyond your wildest dreams, of course you'll try.

Roger, the locksmith, lives in Shoal, the northern city, near where Yamashita made his last stand. Roger assumes they must have. He hid some of the treasures around the city from him, so he looks around the city from the beginning because he knows logically that that's probably one of the best places to start. Roger was a very diligent man every spare moment he was working to see what he could find. eliminating areas and continuing to move forward in a very logical progressive manner to help you in your search for him. Rogers scrimped and saved and bought himself a metal detector, but all Roger has managed to find is some old coins and some Japanese ammunition, but that's not it.

Without his faith weakening one day, he is sure that he will find the treasure with the that he has been dreaming of since he was a child, no matter how many disappointments a treasure hunter has, they will always continue then, in 1961, after years of searching for the gold that Roger has. appears to be a breakthrough gets the kind of clue he had been longing for a map of a tunnel complex there are many maps and sketches like this in treasure hunting circles at the time Roger has seen many of them before but they have all been fake, this one is different, this map comes from a Japanese soldier, he is convinced that this is the real one, the problem is that the map is in the gold Lily fish in a pile of Hast and you don't even know where the pile of Hast is Hast because The map has no topographical features but Roger also knows that this Japanese soldier had been in the shoal with the engineering group while they were burying gold during the last days of Yamashita's retreat.

A map supposedly related to one of those treasure vaults that he was approaching could sense. Roger never gives up and the reason is that he knows the treasure is there and he knows that year after year, at least, he is eliminating where it is not yet, despite all his high hopes, Roger simply cannot crack the code of the map after years. After the search, he's no closer to finding Yamashita's gold, but at least the map confirms to Roger that his initial instincts are correct: there's treasure somewhere around the shoal as he combs the jungles around him. shallows.

Roger Rojas finally gets the clue that he has been searching for a cryptic map of the tunnel complex used to hide gold taken by the Japanese during World War II, then Roger meets a man who seemed to offer him his next breakthrough yabo okubo okubo tells him to Roger who served under the command of the Japanese. As an interpreter during the occupation of the Philippines, there were a lot of Filipinos who claimed to know where buried Japanese treasure was, mainly because many Filipinos had been forced to work with the Japanese, not necessarily what we would call collaborators, but simply because the Japanese needed Cook drivers, interpreters, all that kind of stuff.

Okubo confesses that he served none other than General Yamashita while working for him. Okubo had witnessed Yamashita carrying a large amount of gold to the shoal towards the end of the war and then Okubo reveals the crucial information Roger had after the gold was in wooden boxes hidden in a tunnel not far from General Hospital. del Bajío, so this was the final link, this allowed him to tie the bow and have the perfect package now he knows where to go, he knows where to dig, he was elated because now it pointed out the area for Mire, but Roger doesn't know that he has a rival, the most powerful man in the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos in 1965.

Marcos had been democratically elected but quickly became a pathologically greedy dictator. Money was extremely important to Ferdinand Marcos, he loved it like nothing else and there is only one person who can match Marcos's greed, his shopaholic wife, Elda, but Elda's luxurious lifestyle was not the only one. which is why Marcos needed money. The richer you were, the more powerful you were. It's that easy. It's a very simple equation and nothing can make Marcos more powerful. Aside from finding Yamashita's gold, it's not at all surprising that Marcos was interested in Yash Go because he was basically a bully and the mere thought of the promise of gold and that he would have hit it like a shot compared to Roger Marcos has a huge advantage in In the pursuit of Yamashita's golden power, it was incredibly easy for Marcos to use his power to find the target.

He has entire armies at his disposal. Armies, ships, map experts and deciphering all kinds of clues. Despite all these resources, Marcos has found nothing and so on. idea a cunning strategy wasa brilliant politician but he was also brilliantly corrupt on the surface he seemed to be a rational person who was guided by the law but in person he was quite ruthless Marcos passes a law requiring treasure hunters to apply for a permit detailing where they are going to start digging, He comes up with the permit system because this way he has all the enthusiastic treasure hunters from all over the country working for him because now they have told him where they think the treasure is that is just waiting.

To see if someone finds him, then he can move because he has the resources to do it and you know, that's very smart. Meanwhile, in Bajío in 1970, Roger marries a new wife and a son on the way, now he needs Yamashita's gold more than ever. and then Roger diligently applies for one of Marcos permits. Roger did everything the right way. He thought that if he followed the rules set by the government, he could search, find, excavate, recover and it would all be done with the blessings of the Roger Town government. The person running the app is none other than Marcus's uncle.

In May 1970, armed with his permit, his map and Okubo's information, Roger decides to risk everything to find Yamashita's gold, spending all his life savings hiring a team of workers and together they begin to make their way through the thicket. Jungle vegetation near the Bajío General Hospital, so it was very difficult for Roger to find the tunnel near the hospital because it was 25 years before they closed it with an explosion and every year, during the rainy season, these jungles change their appearance and sensation. dramatic L Then, after 2 weeks of almost non-stop searching, Roger sees the mouth of a cave.

Could this be the entrance to the Treasure Vault? Ubo told him that about 100m into the tunnel a collapse means Roger can't go any further, but to Roger this is a good sign that he knows that the Japanese had used dynamite to close their treasure vault, so Roger and his team began the arduous task of clearing the path. The conditions for Roger and the team to dig in the tunnel would have been horrible, it was hot in there. insects there were snakes it was very hard work digging the tunnel it was very very dangerous and Roger knew that if this really was a tunnel that the Japanese had built there could be booby traps but Roger is willing to risk his life to get to the gold of Yashida. once you get that golden meal, it's insatiable, you just can't satiate that appetite.

He was becoming obsessed with one more shovel, one more stone. I will get it, this will be the treasure of my life and everyone will say yes, you found it. Finally, after four long months of digging, they manage to break through. Roger Roas has spent his life savings and every spare moment searching for the lost horde of looted Japanese treasures long ago. Then, after weeks of grueling work, he makes a grim discovery of skeletons dressed in rags, but not these. These are not just any rags, they are Japanese military uniforms, could they be the remains of the engineers who had hidden Yamashita's gold only to be buried alive by Yamashita himself?

He believes that he is there and now knows that he has all the pieces of the puzzle that he is. literally on the threshold of recovering the gold he has searched for 10 years it is there it is at his fingertips beyond the skeletons a vast network of tunnels extends Roger and his team spend weeks exploring them day after day and find nothing else That a full 6 months after finding the entrance to the tunnel, Roger still has not found any treasure. For starters, Roger had spent all the money he had raised to start the dig and no one was going to give him any more money.

Without money, there will be no crew. It seems like the hunt is over just before Roger decides to give up once and for all. He has one last try with his metal Det sector and then hears the telltale humming sound from it. This buzz that Roger got from his metal detector must have been the best sound he heard. had in his life Roger is stunned, hidden behind the wall is a golden statue of Buddha, this was that moment in life when you would look back and say yes, I have achieved my goal throughout my life, this is , this find is the most significant find of anything anyone has discovered in the Philippines, Buddha is Burmese style, according to legend, the Japanese had looted religious artifacts from temples all over Burma, he must have found one of the 175 fountains of the yashida's treasure and that wasn't the entire area around the Buddha was full of wooden boxes, payday finally came, the gold that Roger just discovered is worth a fortune, each of those ingots is worth $1,000 and he estimated that there were more than a thousand boxes of gold bars, so "We're talking about an incredible amount of money, more treasure than he ever dreamed he'd find.

I mean, this has exceeded his wildest expectations. Roger returns home with the Buddha planning return for the gold with trucks and men, but the more you look at the statue. the more curious Roger becomes, there is something about it that is not quite right, the Buddha is full of diamonds, the value had just gone off the chart that night, Roger documents his life-changing find, the news of the miraculous discovery Roger's soon extends to the presidential palace. I can imagine him going crazy when he found out that Marcus was going to do anything to get that Buddha away from Roas and would eventually take up residence in the Marcos Palace, unfortunately because Roger Marcos' main tactic was brute force on April 5, 1971 . said that a group of mysterious men appear at Roger's house, they said you have 3 minutes to open the door, we are going to shoot you right here, they took everything from him, can you imagine the feeling of violation throughout his life?

He has sought this. He found it and now they've taken it, but if Marcos thinks he can intimidate Roger and his family, he's wrong. Roger had risked everything to find this gold and he wasn't going to let it go that easily. Roger reports the robbery to the police. At the time, President Marcos had considerable control over the police and the military in particular, but Marcos still does not control the media. In a few days, the press picks up Roger's story, it was a big scandal, you know, there's stolen loot, it's the First World War, it's the Japanese.

Marcus was involved, the newspaper was full of articles that were nothing less than calling Marcos a common thief. The hostile press coverage comes at a critical time for Marcos. He was widely known for fixing his second term elections that were ridiculously corrupt. I mean he supposedly won by two million votes, it was just impossible, he was widely lampooned everywhere for corruption and he was starting to feel quite insecure. Marcos needs to silence this treasure hunter quickly. There is an obvious solution. The Marus regime was notorious. for extrajudicial executions you would have the squads basically kill people who are seen as very critical of the regime.

This time Marcos needs a different approach. I think at the time he must have thought the story had enough public exposure not to be. able to risk making Roger disappear like many of his opponents. 3 weeks later, Roger finally receives good news. They tell him that his Buddha is waiting to be picked up at the Bajío court, but when he gets there, he gets a surprise. After a decade of searching, Roger Roas finally found Yashida's gold only to have it mysteriously and forcibly taken away by apparently the president Ferdinand Marcos Weeks later Roger hears that his Buddha is waiting to be picked up at the Bajío court when Roger saw the Buddha he immediately knew this.

Wasn't it the Buddha he had found? It was a different color. Different shape. Facial expression. The head did not come off. Marcus hopes Roger says yes. That is the Buddha. Thanks, but he didn't know that Roos Roas was determined to be one. I'm not going to let that start and this was a big mistake for Marcos because he had misread Roos' personality. Roger declares that Buddha is fake, this really marks the beginning of the end for Roger, just over two weeks later, more mysterious men come for Roger. Over several days, Roger says he was repeatedly burned with cigarettes, beaten and electrocuted.

Roger claimed that he signed an affidavit stating that Marcos had nothing to do with the theft of the Buddha from him and revealed the location of the thousands of gold bars. Roger was a very broken man when he signed that statement, David, I mean, he was fighting publicly, but now he admits that no, there was no crime, he must have been completely demoralized. Marcos imprisons Roger and wastes no time helping himself to the rest of Rogers but eventually Marcus's megalomania. will prove his downfall in 1986 a popular revolution forces Marcos and Elda to flee the country the Filipino people storm Marcos' presidential palace and what they find inside is incredible they were surprised at what they found they found treasures of statues and art and thousands of pairs of shoes this is just what they left behind marcos was by far the richest man in the world one of the questions for the philippine people was where marcos' enormous wealth had come from for most there was an obvious answer marcos' wealth came mainly from of theft, embezzlement and corruption and you can look back.

I believe that his joint reign was simply a self-enrichment plot and the administration of the Philippines was simply an incidental element; they were basically using public treason as their piggy bank years later while on trial for fraud. and embezzlement imal dearcos' defense states that his fortune was not looted from the philippine treasury but actually came from finding

yamashita

gold, but to roger roas none of this matters his life is in ruins roger never fully recovered from his torture and the damage is so great that you cannot see with your right eye for the rest of your life after this he lost his money he lost his self esteem he lost his wife Roger lost everything despite all this Roger still has a little from the spirit that had helped him he finds the gold it is a treasure Hunter's mentality they must reach the end of the story they must obtain the treasure anyway Roger had lost so much that he had nothing to lose with Marcos in exile in Hawaii Roger presents a lawsuit against him even when Marcos dies a year later, in September 1989, the case continues, you could say that Marcos actually got his way, he lived out his exile in Hawaii and died of natural causes, um, you could well say that they did quite well, it takes seven more years before Roger is finally vindicated in 1996, jury concludes that Marcos had stolen from Rogers finds $43 billion in damages it's a war when the court rules in Roger's favor it is a significant moment in legal history 43 billion is awarded to Roger, which is the largest civil lawsuit award in history unfortunately Roger never sees justice served on the eve of his day in court, he dies, he has only 49 years later, in 1998, the huge compensation is annulled and no court has challenged the verdict that Marco stole Roger's treasure.

The lawyers are still struggling to determine his worth, it's hard not to look at Roger and empathize with this man, his determination was boundless and I think if nothing else, Roger was a hero and I think that's how he will be. remembered. He was willing to be David against Goliath, he was willing to risk his life, and therefore I take my hat off to him. Roger's tragic story begs the question: what did he uniquely find or, as legend has it, are there 174 other treasure vaults still waiting? undiscovered since the war, treasure hunters from all over the world have scoured the Philippines in search of

yamashita

gold, but none of them have found anything, however, people are still willing to risk their lives, searching for yash gold is a very dangerous activity even for This day I think it was in the year 2000 two men were buried alive searching for the Treasure.

What motivates them is their certainty that Yamashita's gold is still out there.