I posted the story about Philippines move to regulate treasure hunting in caves earlier, but a smaller detail in this Inquirer story was a little interesting – besides archaeological and cultural finds, is the Philippines trying to deter hunters for Yamashita’s treasure as well?
Philippines to regulate treasure-hunting
Philippine Inquirer, 27 Dec 2007
Besides protecting caves from treasure-hunters searching for cultural and archaeological artifacts,
Treasure hunters scour the Philippines in search of World War II booty supposedly plundered from across Southeast Asia and hidden by Japanese occupation forces shortly before the country was liberated by the United States.
Tomoyuki Yamashita was the general of the Japanese forces tasked to invade Malaysia and Singapore during World War II. Nicknamed the “Tiger of Malaya”, Yamashita was said to have loot from the Southeast Asian campaign scurried away to Philippines (although there’s another theory that the treasure is really in Malaysia or Singapore…)
You can read more about the cave regulation here and previously on SEAArch here. Hmm… hidden Japanese gold in a Southeast Asian jungl all makes for a good archaeological tale in centuries to come.
Books about Yamashita’s alleged hidden treasure:
- In Search of Gold
- Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold
- Yamashita’s Gold
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