The Controversial Story Behind the Yamashita`s Treasures (Essay Sample)

Yamashita's Treasure
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Yamashita`s Treasure
Yamashita`s treasure is the name given to the alleged money stolen in Southeast Asia by the Japanese forces during the World War II and was hidden in tunnels, caves and underground complexes in Philippines(Chrysaetos,2013). General Yamashita was tasked with hiding the loot in dozens of caves in Philippines. This paper explores the controversial story behind the Yamashita`s treasures.
During the earlier part of World War II, looted treasures were being shipped back to Japan to finance war. However, when the American patrolling naval made the shipping of these treasures to Japan highly risky with due almost certain loss, another plan was created. World War II loot reached Philippines around October 1943, during a time when Field Marshall Count Terauchi was the head of Japanese Imperial Forces in the southeast area of the Pacific. He ordered Admiral Masaharu and several other generals and admirals including Yamashita that all war treasures taken from occupied territories such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Northern India among others, be collected and transferred to Philippines (Chrysaetos,2013).
Japan had always considered Philippines islands a very significant strategic location for military bases in Southeast Asia. Once the shipping lanes became too hazardous due to the American naval vessels, almost all the loot that had been accumulated by the Japanese was channeled to Philippines and buried. The Japanese ultimate plan was that after the end of the war, they would withdraw all the forces in all the other Asian countries but try to maintain colonial rule over Philippines. In hopes to win over the people of Philippines, the Japanese set up a Philippine republic and installed a puppet government with Judge Jose Laurel as the president. Japanese hoped that they would be regarded as heroes by the Philippines that would allow them to put military bases as a pretext of protection for the Philippines people. In this way, the Japanese could stay in Philippines for as long as they wanted and take their time to re-excavate the stolen World War II treasures at their leisure. It was an excellent plan but it did not work as the Americans invaded Philippines in October 1944.
It is documented that there are 172 burial sites left by the Japanese. 138 of these sites are on land while 34 are on water sites It i...