The Story Behind The ‘Controversial’ Yamashita Treasure.
The Yamashita’s treasure is a name given to all the alleged money that was stolen in South East Asia by the forces of Japan during World war II. The money that was stolen by the Japanese was hidden in different places like caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines. Generally, the Yamashita was tasked with the hiding of the loot in dozen of the caves in the Philippines (Cohen, 2009).
During the war, looted treasures were shipped back to Japan to finance World War II. When the naval patrol of America was shipping of treasures back to Japan there was a rise of high risk with due to certain loss, and as a result, an alternative plan was created. In 1943, during the Second World War, the loot reached the Philippines when Field Marshall Count Terauchi was the leader of the Japanese Imperial Forces in the far southeast area of the Pacific Ocean (Cohen, 2009).
After there were rumors which said that there was a certain team of secret intelligence officers from America who were investigating the JIA and where they hid their war loots. Even though the mission was difficult, it was later discovered that most of the war loots had been shipped to the Philippines. After the loots were and some of the Yamashita treasures, the Americans decided to stay for a while in the nation (Tanaka, & Omura, 1993).
When the military staff of General Yamashita surrendered, all of them except the General were several tortured. Filipino-American Intelligence officers were the force behind the enhanced interrogation of Yamashita’s staff. The main reason for torturing General Yamashita’s staff was to reveal the hidden area where their War loots got buried (Tanaka, & Omura, 1993).
References
Cohen, H. G. (2009). Undead Wartime Cases: Stare Decisis and the Lessons of History. Tul. L. Rev., 84, 957.
Tanaka, Y., & Omura, S. (1993). Agro active compounds of microbial origin. Annual Reviews in Microbiology, 47(1), 57-87.