On my last night, after dinner, Klaus brought out a perfectly shaped cement heart complete with a flawlessly carved artery. Emmanuel Soriano, Aquinos national security director, offered a note of realism. 0000005640 00000 n These sites were protected by ancient rituals performed by Shinto priests. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Are the Philippines the wealthiest nation on earth? I had been miles away. Over time I reached out to Klaus in the hope that he would write an article for the magazine. See Photos. The United States had stumbled upon the greatest treasure hoards in history, including more gold bullion than was known to be in existence, and would use this unfathomable wealth to influence world affairs, win the Cold War, launch a space programme, and create a new world order. In the background I continued to promote a treatment I had written for a reality TV show, that I would present, that would feature the quest for Japanese treasure in the Philippines, and sent it to all the usual history shows and their production companies. I was intrigued, and worried for him, and a little for myself. Norman Tony Darcus: a Las Vegas investor who visited the Philippines and was shown secret tunnels where gold bullion was awaiting transportation to the United States. "Yamashita's Gold." There, some say, it remains today waiting for someone possibly for you to find it and walk away. Treasure hunting has been big business in the Philippines since the end of World War II, when former Japanese Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita was captured and hanged in Manila. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. While in Los Angeles I also met with Dan Cathcart, the lawyer who had famously represented Roxas in the Supreme Court and had heroically won the case over Ferdinand Marcos. I laid back down and thought to myself, What the hell had I just got myself into. It was a fascinating place; a former Japanese military base with large boulders carved into animal shapes. Los Angeles Times. My interest in the story had been rejuvenated, albeit under the most peculiar of circumstances. I had heard many stories about this guy. Why would three months pass before the public was informed? Their uncle, Charlie McLeod, was worried because they never wrote home. Andrew Gough. They used the same water from the streams as everyone else and unwittingly infected many of the other men. Europe and others push for a standard lunar time zone, Bola Tinubu, the declared winner of Nigerias presidential election, appeals for unity, A 5,000-year-old restaurant highlights Iraqs archaeological renaissance, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff. People named Bob Curtis. My spare time was spent editing the Heretic Magazine with my friends Mark Foster and Beth Johnson. Andrew Gough, A leaf of the bogtalay tree The director simply said, whenever you are ready, and he proceeded to speak uninterrupted for over an hour. Billy and Bob were prepared to camp for several days near the Norris ranch while they looked for gold. At two hundred and fifteen feet Klaus was literally on the doorstep of a discovery. All six bullets had apparently been fired at whoever or whatever had killed him.[2]. The implausibilities pile higher and higher. His luck was about to change. In 1849 during the California Gold Rush, over 30,000 men flocked to trails where gold had been seen. For weeks, the government deliberately tried to keep that digging a secret. I knew what it was, but I could not believe my eyes. She was clearly in her 90s, and yet it was a long shot, but lo and behold we hit the jackpot. After all, that was why we were there. If they had happened, and I had known about them, I would have punished the wrongdoers severely. Robert Curtis meets Ferdinand Marcos in 1975. Klauss team said that every so often Japanese treasure hunters come to the village enquiring if anyone knows where that landmark is. Together they wrote a number of books on Asian histories which purported to be nonfiction, most of which portrayed either the CIA or Japanese figures as the villain, and all of which expressed a deep suspicion of all things Western and Japanese. In addition, American, French, Belgian, British and Australian divers are spending millions of dollars combing the bottom of the Philippine Sea in search of old Spanish galleons and other commercial ships that sank with thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in treasure as long ago as the 1500s. Dametz was in poor health, so he needed help from McSherry to get to his digging spot, a small sandy pit in the middle of the forest. Whilst on trial, General Yamashita defended the charges of war crimes that were levelled against him: My command was as big as MacArthurs or Lord Louis Mountbattens. They followed that with a treasure chamber at around a depth of approximately one hundred feet, knowing that most treasure hunters would consider that the final prize. Curtis had raised funding for his treasure hunt by claiming that Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos himself had personally invited him to recover the gold based on his unique expertise. I could do that, I thought. Bob assumed that Billy must be nearby. They brought dogs and donkeys to help carry their supplies. Eventually, Roxas and his team identified the entrance and discovered various artefacts, such as Japanese bayonets, rifles, and even a human skeleton in a Japanese uniform. The show aired on the American History Channel in the United Statesand was well received. Find your friends on Facebook. Roxas was convinced there was treasure buried around the Baguio Hospital, but was unsure exactly where to look. Seagrave describes the event like the master storyteller that he was: As the evening progressed, they drank great quantities of sake, sang patriotic songs and shouted Banzai (long life) over and over. Torn Treasure Map 2: Top right side of the map, inside a drawer of the house called "Manito Glade". He met his wife Peggy in the United States after both had become prominent figures in JFK assassination conspiracy theories. We learned that he had found marker artefacts at a shallow depth in the ground at various sites nearby. Never-before-seen photos of authentic Black Eagle Trust bank statements, representing but a small portion of the wealth acquired from Japanese gold. I could hardly move. Can it? After working on my prostate, the healer opened up my liver, heart and spine in the same manner with only his hands. In Red Dead Redemption 2, you can run out of money fast as there are many things that you need to buy to progress further. It was a very difficult meeting to secure and I was essentially vetted before being granted an audience. I was amazed. 1 Mar 2023. This time he remained hidden for a year, before being arrested after he returned to Baguio in July 1972. Web. Real or imagined, I was perceived as an expert on the subject. Im betting its here.. Even a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer away in his private jet. I met her at Soho House and found her to be a gracious and grateful lady, albeit quite fixated on the messages that the alleged spirit of Roxas had been sharing with her. Anyway, it keeps me fit, he added with bravado. I was intrigued and found myself engrossed in the mystery once more. Lansdale could not believe his luck and promptly informed US General Douglas MacArthur, who returned to the Philippines to inspect the extraordinary discovery for himself. Im in the Philippines. It was not clear if they even knew they existed. He quickly succeeded, for he was saying something about cyanide. Most of it, he said, is Curtis own money. Night fell, and Billy never returned. Inexplicably, he was being electrocuted. 0000004492 00000 n Intriguingly, the alleged body of Marcos was later reburied in the Cemetery of Heroes in Metropolitan Manila in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy. Might the answer be gold; trillions of dollars worth of gold bullion? As a result, I was frequently contacted by Filipinos who believed they had located lost Japanese treasure hoards and were seeking both expertise and financial assistance in support of their proposed excavations. In total, Klaus had the support of a dozen or so workers; humble villagers, not craftsmen. It is that machine, he said, that has made his group so certain of the amount of buried treasure that lies beneath Ft. Santiago. Eventually, he became so exasperated that he burned the map out of frustration. In January 1973 he was sent to Baguio prison camp, where he was beaten repeatedly. The group fled the country in July, 1978, and did not return until late last year. During Fridays Senate hearing, several senators indicated that they plan to pursue criminal charges against the treasure hunters for violating an old law against desecrating national shrines, of which Ft. Santiago is one of the most famous. Regarding Operation Golden Lily, although evidence fails to show such a program existed with that name, the basic idea makes sense. A STEM-focused 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. Work was frantic and I soon lost touch with the Seagraves. One year later, after an extensive search-and-rescue effort, all three bodies were finally recovered. So he headed to the location with some hiking supplies and his dog. 0000017483 00000 n He also showed me his hands and feet, which were missing various fingers and toes from a chemical booby trap that had been released in an underground water-filled chamber on the site. Ive already invested a lot of my time, my energy and money on this. A search team began combing the nearby jungle, hoping to find the bodies of the missing men. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, but the thought of stumbling upon buried treasure is seductive to everyone. Those who tired or died in the process were quickly replaced. What if the so-called carer had been planted by a covert government agency? For three years, people searched for Jesse and could not find any trace of his remains. The 49-year-old American treasure hunter has cordoned off this rectangular swath of Indian Ocean in the Seychelles, and now he's somewhere 25 feet below, chiseling off chunks of granite and. Andrew Gough. Web. Andrew Gough. Their relationship was complex to say the least. I protested and attempted to leave a second time, but was restrained. Santy, who tortured General Yamashita Tomoyukis driver, Major Kojima. Unlike most treasure hunters, Roxas followed the official protocol, but was unlucky in that his permit was granted by Judge Pio Marcos, the uncle of President Ferdinand Marcos. In order to protect himself from further abuse, he formed the Golden Buddha Corporation (GBC) with Felix Dacaney, a childhood friend who was living near Atlanta, and assigned his interest in the case to the GBC. All Rights Reserved. McDougald said the fatal accident may slow the treasure hunt. What I am really being charged with is losing the war. Heres a list, Greek transportation minister resigns over train collision that killed at least 36, Ohios senators to unveil rail safety bill in wake of East Palestine derailment, After months of pounding, Ukrainian official says military may pull back from Bakhmut, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam, What time is it on the moon? But at least I had aimed high. Andrew Gough. His shirt read Trust me, I do this all the time.. Things became even worse. He shared that he and his wife had their emails and phone calls monitored and had received repeated death threats. No matter where I go treasure hunting and metal detecting I have lot's of fun so thanks for subscribing and I hope you enjoy watching my treasure hunting adventures - I look forward to your . He is even said to have approached the Japanese about entering into a partnership to extract the gold together, to which he was coldly informed not to bother, for it would take a hundred years to unearth what they had deposited in the Philippines. Fair enough. 0000008710 00000 n More of that, he encouraged. Oihara was there too. But there was more. Though the loot is generically referred to here as Yamashitas Treasure, after Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the last Japanese commanding general in the Philippines, McDougald said the treasure that his group is seeking was probably buried in the fort during 1943, 1944 and 1945 by various Japanese generals. We rode back to Klauss house for what was to be a fascinating evening. There is every indication that this cave-in was caused by a booby trap, McDougald said, reporting the results of an investigation by his teams geologist and resident mining engineers. 0000001059 00000 n I go deep underground in an effort to try and find out International Precious Metals already has spent $40,000 on its hunt, McDougald revealed. In his extensive research on the subject, Seagrave recounted how in one horrific incident in June 1945, as US tanks approached from twenty miles away, the one hundred and seventy-five chief engineers who were responsible for each of the sites were given a farewell party two hundred and twenty feet underground, in a complex known as Tunnel 8. In the ensuing days Klaus reshot the tunnel footage himself (on his phone) and I re-did my studio interview at the more civilised time of 10am, and with my good friend Burgess directing. Bob Curtis. Fuchigami recounted a time when his father had taken him to a treasure tunnel behind Baguio Hospital, and explained how the tunnel tracks and handrails had been used for transporting large quantities of gold. I stuffed a generous amount of notes into a contribution vase, said goodbye to Klaus and headed for the airport, via a cobra farm. Yet Hunter, who passed away on Monday evening at the age of 78, did . The covert Black Eagle Trust accounts were inspired by the Nazi black eagle stamped on the gold bars acquired by the Third Reich. Roxas testified, returned to hiding, was discovered by Marcoss men and tortured. When I came across leaves in my tunnel complex I had only another ten feet or so left until I was in the chamber. I was fascinated, not only by the camaraderie between treasure hunters, and the fact that other Imperial treasures had been discovered, but also by the fact that Klaus was actually as close to the prize as he thought he was. On our last day of filming we set off for Manila, and with a strong dose of persuasion the director agreed to stop along the way to visit a treasure-hunting priest whom Klaus had arranged for us to meet. So why have so many devoted so much to this tale? See Photos. And so, while we all love a story of lost gold and would thrill to plunge a shovel into a green hillside that we suspect conceals an endless fortune, the urban legend of Yamashita's Gold is another of those most unlikely to have a happy ending. The sheer brutality of the working conditions is what struck me the most; the small, incremental gains that each day brought; hand and chisel, hauling rubble from the reclaimed tunnel backfill back up to the top. One such individual was Eusebio Okubo, who as a young man had served as an interpreter for General Yamashita while he was stationed in Baguio. Amelia did as the dream-induced spirit encounter with Roxas instructed. I tried not to think about it as I descended the first sixty-foot shaft with a bamboo ladder that afforded my already wet and slippery wellies only about three inches of grip before my toes became jammed against the edge of the tunnel. Much to his surprise, and with no background or training in the discipline, Klaus achieved instant success. The director reluctantly agreed to film her, but she became tense and anxious in the spotlight of the film crew. This is the basic theme of the urban legend known today as Yamashita's Gold. It did not work that way. No further. Andrew Gough. In hindsight, I concluded that I had overstated my projected return on investment even though I knew it was real, and that it must have sounded outrageous and not very credible. Marcos was overthrown in February, 1986, and Mr. Curtis began making overtures to the new government soon after, McDougald said last week, adding that he got involved in Curtis new venture while researching a book he plans to write on hidden wealth in the Philippines. Andrew Gough. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson 's 1881 novel, Treasure Island. Even Imelda Marcos confessed that her husbands wealth had come from Yamashitas gold. The Japanese gold heist, however, would dwarf the earlier Nazi thefts and would be exploited by United States presidents from Truman to Trump, representing one of the greatest conspiracies of our time. International Precious Metals has a year-long permit to hunt for treasure, estimated to be as much as $200 billion in gold that the Japanese looted from the country. The award was later substantially reduced and nothing was ever collected. He was now finding leaves in the tunnel backfill; actual leaves from a Streblus asper tree, known in the Philippines as bogtalay, that had been placed in the German cement as the Japanese backfilled the tunnels. MacArthur was rendered speechless after walking down countless rows of gold bars stacked over two metres high, and promptly notified United States President Harry S Truman of the discovery, who immediately deemed it a state secret. The incredibly ambitious, albeit cruel, initiative was overseen by Japanese princes, most notably Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu, the brother of Emperor Hirohito. In another dream, Amelia said she had been contacted by Roger Roxas, who told her that Marcoss real body remained in Hawaii, where he was living after his exile from the Philippines. Japanese armies did indeed seize valuables and plunder national treasuries of southeast Asian countries. Over the course of the next twelve months Marcoss men extracted a vast amount of gold out from the Baguio Hospital site. One hospital worker, who claims to have witnessed the process, asserted that he saw Marcoss men extract ten boxes a day, and estimated that the haul would have consisted of nearly eleven thousand gold bars. For years Fuchigami studied his fathers treasure map and secretly searched for the entrance to the site. I examined it closely. Torturing surrendered military leaders was a war crime, but those of minor rank were considered fair game. Sign Up. Tunnels filled with a foot of water Goodness knows, hes close. 0000007779 00000 n He was dazed, and yet actually excited about what he believed had caused it. Filed under Conspiracy Theories, History & Pseudohistory, Urban Legends, Skeptoid Podcast Robert Hunter, the man behind the poetic and mystical words for many of the Grateful Dead's finest songs, has died at age 78. We added each other on Skype and began a custom of speaking most days. Roxas was determined to get it out of the chamber as fast as he could, but even with a group of strong young men they struggled to extract it, until finally applying a technique involving rolling logs and rope. 26 Apr. According to Curtis, who gave his exclusive story to Washington columnist Jack Anderson in 1978 and once offered it to adventure magazines for a fee of $50,000, he used World War II-era maps and testimony from survivors who helped to bury the treasure at the end of the war to identify 172 sites throughout the Philippines. The disease spread quickly. In particular, I was keen to investigate one mans courageous efforts to unearth Japanese buried treasure, and the tons of gold bullion that accompanied it. Roxas had been caught out. They were apparitions; ghost soldiers. Juan Quijon: a Filipino army cook who later testified that in 1972 he had been assigned to a newly formed unit called Task Force Restoration, which was created by Marcos to recover treasure, mostly gold, from Japanese treasure sites. Andrew Gough. I had come across some real charlatans in my time, but nevertheless I was listening politely and was relieved to discover that Klaus agreed with my bias. They picked the fort, he said, because it was a high-security location, off-limits to all but military torturers and the unfortunate Filipino prisoners destined for death. Many versions of this story have long been floating around, but by far the best known and most influential is a series of books by Sterling & Peggy Seagrave. Is it the healer, the region, or something else that made the place so naturally powerful? What could go wrong? The book is full of errors that could easily be corrected by a second-year student of the language Another author, Donald Gillin, felt compelled to devote an entire book to debunking the Seagraves' version of history. Cathcart proceeded to tell me in his gentle manner how forthright and convincing Roxas was, and what a surprising amount of evidence there was to support his claims. Not surprisingly, some of Klauss workers will no longer venture to the bottom of the tunnel complex. 30 Apr 2019. With Roxass discovery, Marcoss hopes had become a reality. Literally, out from the shadows, another treasure hunter emerged and interrupted, asking, Did I hear you say that you have found leaves in the tunnel? Cathcart said his team researched Roxass claims for seven years before concluding that there was a sound legal case. When I came across leaves in my tunnel complex and did not return until late year. 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