Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita and the Yamashita Treasure in the Philippines

Tomoyuki Yamashita was the commander of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines when the tide of battle was overwhelmingly in favor of the Americans and their Filipino allies and the defeat of the Japanese forces was imminent. The name of General Yamashita is also associated with the gold and other treasures which were said to be hidden during the war by the Japanese Army under him in many locations in the Philippines.

The Tiger of Malaya

General Yamashita was born on November 8, 1885 in Shikoku, Japan. He finished his education and military training at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908  graduating number 18 in his class. Early in his career he was sent to different assignments one of which was in Shantung, China where the Japanese fought against the German Empire. He was also assigned as Japan’s ambassador to Germany.  Despite occasional falling outs with the powers that be, Yamashita still managed to get to the top of his career that culminated to his designation as the commander of the 25^th Army in 1941. As the commander, he launched a successful attack with the use of only 30,000 men against the combined British, Australian and Indian forces whose strength was 130,000. His outstanding victory had earned him the title as the “Tiger of Malaya”.

Yamashita gained popularity at home because of his achievements in the battlefield. But his detractors who did not want him to be in the limelight caused his transfer to Manchukuo, China in July 1942.

The Manila Massacre

As the war in the Pacific progressed, the war situation was very dim for the Japanese. General Masaharu Homma the Japanese commander in the Philippines was sent into forced retirement. General Yamashita took over the Fourteenth Area Army. He had under his command 262,000 troops which were divided into three groups. He led the largest group, the Shobo, which had 152,000 men whose area of responsibility was Northern Luzon. The smallest group, the Kembu, composed of 30,000 men under Tsukada would defend Bataan.  The third group, the Shimbu, with 80,000 men under Yokoyama would defend Manila and Southern Luzon.

Under relentless pressure from the American forces, Yamashita ordered a retreat to Sierra Madre and Cordilleras in Northern Luzon. He directed a group of troops to withdraw from Manila and leave only security forces of about 3,500 men so that the city would not be turned into a battlefield. Acting in disregard of Yamashita’s order, Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi entered Manila with 16,000 sailors. He then merged his troops with the remaining army security forces.

Iwabuchi’s defiance of Yamashita orders made the city a battle ground and fierce street fighting took place from February 4 to March 3, 1945. Overpowered by the Americans, the Japanese vented their ire on the hapless civilian populace. Many civilians were massacred and many others were caught in the crossfire between the two warring sides. The resulting battles left as many as 100,000 civilians killed with huge devastation to properties that included commercial and historic buildings and other national treasures.

Trial and Execution of a Japanese General

The Japanese surrendered on September 3, 1945. A military tribunal tried General Tomoyuki Yamashita for his war crimes. The trial was not without flaws. All of the 5 prosecutors had no legal training and combat experience. Hearsay evidences and unnamed witnesses were admitted by the court. There were also evidences that the defense could not reasonably challenge in court, and the defense counsels were not given adequate time to prepare themselves for the trial. Yamashita was made to answer for atrocities that were done by troops under his subordinate commanders who made actions and decisions that were contrary to his instructions. Yamashita’s defense counsels contended that during the chaos of the war he could not possibly control many of his commanders’ acts in the field because of difficulty in communication. Nevertheless, Yamashita was sentenced to die by hanging. And appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court, to the US Supreme Court and to President Truman was made by his counsels to save his life or to give him leniency. However, the fate of the Japanese general was left to the discretion of General Douglas MacArthur who affirmed the decision of the military tribunal. On 23 February 1946 Yamashita was hanged in Los Banos, Laguna.

Yamashita Treasure

In the aftermath of the Second World War there were rumors about huge quantities of gold being hidden in caves, tunnel and underground complex in different parts of the Philippines. There were claims that Japanese troops under Yamashita brought huge quantities of gold from Singapore to the Philippines. From the Philippines they were to be brought to the Japanese home islands. However, the changing fortune of war and the sinking of Japanese ships by American submarines, warship and planes made the Japanese leave behind large quantities of their loot in the Philippines. It was said that the Japanese during the war looted the countries of Asia of gold, silver, diamonds, jewelries and other valuables. Those looted included banks, depositaries, temples, churches, mosques, museums, other commercial premises and private homes.

The Golden Buddha and the Bars of Gold

A well publicized incident in the Philippines that ended up to be settled in the US court in Hawaii seemed to confirm the existence of the “Yamashita Treasure”.

Rogelio Roxas was a treasure hunter from Baguio City. One day in 1971, he was approached by a person who claimed to be a son of a former Japanese soldier under Yamashita. The man had with him a map on the location of a Japanese hidden treasure. They were soon joined by an interpreter of the Japanese who had also knowledge of the location of the treasure. Using the map, they along with Roxas’ workers dug under the plot of state-owned Baguio General Hospital. After seven months of painstaking diggings, the hunters found bayonets, rifles, radios, Samurai swords and skeletal remains with Japanese army uniforms. Digging further, they found a concrete- enclosed chamber. Breaking through it, they found inside a three-foot Golden Buddha that weighed about a thousand pound. Several feet below it were 5 to 6 feet high stacks of boxes that filled an area of 6x6 feet. When Roxas opened one of the boxes, he saw 24 bars of gold in it. Because of the massive finds and their excessive weight, Roxas and his companions brought only with them the Golden Buddha and the box of gold that was opened. And then they resealed the chamber and the diggings before they left.

Roxas had the find examined and he discovered that the bars is a 20 karat solid gold. He later sold 7 of them and kept the rest in his house. He later tried to find a buyer for the golden Buddha so that he could finance the retrieval of the gold bars that were left behind in the chamber.  Two prospective buyers approached him and later confirmed that the Buddha was made of 20 karat solid gold.  Before it could be sold, armed men with search warrant signed by Judge Pio Marcos, an uncle of the then President Ferdinand Marcos, broke into Roxas’ house, beat him and seized the Buddha and the remaining gold bars. Roxas was later jailed. Eventually, the incident reached the Philippine media and became news. Political opponents of Marcos even made the incident an issue against him. The “Golden Buddha” which became the subject of controversy was placed in the court. However, Roxas claimed that the Buddha in display was not the one that he dug up, and that it was just a brass imitation of the original.

US Court Judgment against the Marcoses

Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972. He was deposed in the 1986 People Power Revolution and he fled to Hawaii. Rogelio Roxas organized the Golden Buddha Corporation to recover the treasure that was seized by Marcos. He filed a suit against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in 1988 for theft and human rights abuse in a US State Court in Hawaii. Although he died before the trial started, Roxas had issued the court a deposition testimony. The court affirmed the claim of Roxas and judgment was awarded to the Golden Buddha Corporation and the estate of Roxas amounting to 26 billion US dollars and with interest to 40.25 billion US dollars. The Hawaii Supreme Court however did not concur with the decision of the lower court stating that the chamber full of gold was too speculative and there was no evidence unveiled to determine gold quantity and quality. After more years of legal proceedings, the Golden Buddha Corp. obtained a final judgment and Imelda Marcos was made to pay only the Golden Buddha and the 17 gold bars in the amount of $13,275,848.37and $6,000,000 to the Roxas state for human rights abuse .The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals summarize the judgment as follows: “The Yamashita Treasure was found by Roxas, and stolen from Roxas by Marcos’men.”

“Yamashita treasure”, the urban legend

The claim of Rogelio Roxas about his gold find was real in the light of the decision of the American court.  If there were remaining boxes of gold in the chamber under the lot of the hospital then their money value could be very substantial .The Marcoses were suspected to have stolen billions of pesos from the Philippine coffers during their unlamented rule in the Philippines. Imelda Marcos said otherwise claiming that their wealth came from the Yamashita treasure.

Many people are fascinated with the story of the “Yamashita Treasure”.  Many people do not believe the story and dismiss it as a mere urban legend. Other people who believe in it invested effort and money to look for the elusive gold. There were few unconfirmed reports of finds, but most of those who ventured in the search ended up losing their shirts.  

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The Communist Insurgency in the Philippines

The history of communist insurgency in the Philippines dates back in World War II when Marxist-Leninist inspired group called Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) fought on the side of Filipino and American forces against the Japanese. That was so because Russia or USSR, the first communist state in the world and its patron, was part of the Allied Forces that fought Germany in World War II. The Hukbalahap also championed the cause of the peasants and also fought the landlords in Central Luzon and those who were suspected of collaborating with the Japanese.

During the election of 1946 just after the war members of the Hukbalahap led by Luis Taruc ran for election and some of them won. However, President Roxas unseated them, and they went to the jungle to revolt. The image projected by the communists as defenders of the peasants and the poor plus the corruption of the succeeding president had strengthened their mass based support as well as its armed capability. It came close to victory so that it even threatened to advance to Manila, the national capital.   

In 1949, the Filipino communists got a morale boost and inspiration from a world event which was the overthrow of China’s Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek by the communists who were led by Mao Zedong. The victory of the Chinese communists had somehow strengthened the conviction of their local counterparts that the rebellion could succeed.

The ambush by the communists of the popular former first lady Aurora Aragon Quezon, chairperson of the Philippine National Red Cross and widow of the late President Manuel L. Quezon, and her daughter “Baby” turned many Filipinos against them.  President Harry Truman of the United States, wary of communist victory, sent arms and other war materiel to the Philippines to help its armed forces.  One shining moment in the fight against the communists was the appointment of Ramon Magsaysay as defense secretary. Magsaysay enforced strict discipline in the military and vastly improved its capability to deal with the armed rebellion. Later, as the President of the Philippines he implemented social and economic reforms that eventually broke the backbone of communist rebellion. The communists were completely defeated in 1954 with their top leaders killed, captured and surrendered.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was vanquished, but its ideology was not. To keep that ideology from inspiring the youth, it should be discredited or replaced with a better one. The Marxist concept of sharing all works according to one’s ability and all benefits according to one’s need and a utopian society where everyone is equal is indeed appealing not only to the poor but also to most people. Corruption, unequal distribution of wealth and the privileges of the elites are ills of the Philippine society. The communists believed that application of their ideology is the solution to the country’s problems. Some people believed then that communism was the wave of the future whose eventual triumph could not be prevented.

Despite government’s effort to subdue it, Marxist-Leninist idea was passed on to new generation of youths and students.  A line of communications between the old and the new communists was open. Jose Maria Sison alias Amado Guerrero emerged as the leader of the then communist youths. He differed however with the old group of Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) or the Communist Party of the Philippines regarding the way it carried out its operations in the past which resulted to the defeat or near extinction of the PKP. Furthermore, Sison was more inclined to the Chinese style communism or Maoism rather the Soviets’ on which the remnants of Hukbalahap under PKP Secretary General Jesus Lava adhered to. Correcting past errors, Sison made the First Rectification of the Communist Strategy.

The old communists under Lava however, took exception of Sison’s rectification campaign which led to the division between the old and the young communists. Sison considered Lava and his groups as counter revolutionary and revisionists. Sison bolted out from the PKP in 1968 and reestablished the Communist Party of the Philippines with him as the chairman. On March 29, 1969, Sison founded the New People’s Army (NPA) as the armed wing of the party.                

The CPP/NPA made one of their boldest moves when they bombed the political campaign rally of the Liberal Party on August 21, 1971, in Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila. It resulted to 9 dead and 95 injured, and almost wiped out the entire opposition senatorial ticket of the Party. The public attributed the incident to President Ferdinand Marcos. The communist- instigated rally in the streets spearhead by the League of Filipino Students created an atmosphere of instability and chaos so that Marcos had to suspend the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.

Near the end of his term, Marcos declared martial law which enabled him to extend his rule for another 13 long years. Under the pretext of containing communist and Muslim rebellions he imprisoned political oppositions, silenced the media and put up a puppet legislative assembly. The abuses committed by men in uniform in the hinterlands had somehow helped the NPA heightened their recruitment in the country side.                                                                                                                               

The repressive and corrupt Martial Law regime became a common ground for the communist and other well meaning groups to rally against. On April 24, 1973 the CPP/NPA established the National Democratic Front (NDF) as umbrella group in coalition with other sectors that were opposed to the dictatorship.                                                                                                                                                                   

During the Martial Law years many of those who joined the CPP/NPA were intelligent idealistic youths who had bright future ahead of them if they had chosen to be in the mainstream path. But they chose to go underground and to live in hardship to follow their conviction.

Meanwhile, the United States and the neighboring South Viet Nam were defeated by the communist North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong in 1975. The historic event was a sort of psychological boost to the local communists in the thought that a dedicated and highly motivated weaker force can defeat a seemingly bigger and formidable foe with a status of a super power.                                                                  

The situation under Marcos came to a head when Benigno Aquino, a prominent opposition leader, was assassinated upon his arrival from the United States. Putting the blame on Marcos, people took to the street to protests. The resulting political upheaval took its toll on the economy and there was a strong call from the people for Marcos to resign. To appease them and to regain his image abroad, Marcos called for a snap election. Though he was declared a winner against his rival, Corazon Aquino, the people thought that the election was rigged. In February 1986 people turned out in large numbers to protest. Marcos woes were worsened when his defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Vice chief of staff Fidel Ramos defected to the protesters. Under extreme pressure, Marcos fled to Hawaii and Cory Aquino was proclaimed as president.    

The stand of the communists in that historic moment to watch in the sideline and to wait and see was understandable considering that the Philippine military had taken the center stage of the February revolution. They knew that the military was uncompromisingly anti-communist, and there was no possibility that it would collaborate with them.                                                                     

In 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic collapsed after 70 years of adapting Marxism. The event had a serious and negative implication to the cause the local communist are fighting for - their ideology. The experience of the USSR strongly indicated that communism does not work. However, the CPP/NPA did not go with the demise of the USSR. Although it has weakened, it continues to exist and remains a potent threat to national security.                                                                                                                                                                           

Furthermore, after the death of Mao Zedong, his successors opened the door for private business ownership and invited foreign investors thus undoing his closed market policy. The result was that the economy of China improved tremendously. China is now the second largest economy in the world. However, China maintains its authoritarian character, and still considers itself as a communist state. The experience in China proves that Marxist state controlled economy stifles growth, and that an economy where businesses are privately owned is a better economic system.

Some of the former conditions which facilitated the growth of the CPP/NPA were gone. And worse the communists suffered enormous casualties in the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines which caused their strength to dwindle. The central committee then declared the implementation of Second Great Rectification Movement in the 1990’s to make internal criticism on mistakes committed in the past. It was launched in 1992 and largely completed in 1998.                                                                                               

The rectification resulted to the purges in the rank of the CPP/NPA .  Hundreds of members were secretly and summarily executed by their own comrades on suspicion of being deep penetration agent of the military. This resulted to the divisions and demoralization to the ranks of the communists. Jose Maria Sison reiterated his policy of a protracted war. Those who adhered to his view were called the reaffirmists. There were those who rejected his idea and believed that the NPA was ready to attack the urban centers as prelude to overthrow the government. Those who supported that view were called rejectionists.

The CPP/NPA’s rebellion had exacted its toll on the Filipinos especially those living in the rural area. It is estimated that the total number of death since the NPA’s founding in 1969 has now totaled 40,000. The casualties included military, police, civilians and communists. The NPAs have sustained their struggle by collecting taxes on business establishments like mining, logging, telecommunication companies and others. It is estimated that they had collected 1.5 billion pesos since 1998. The CPP/NPA is also reportedly receiving money from foreign donors and sponsors. The government and the military termed the collection of the NPAs as extortion.

NPAs’ imposition of revolutionary taxes has tarnished its image. They convey their message to uncooperative businessmen and establishments by destroying or burning trucks and backhoes and other equipments.  There were also reports of liquidations by the NPAs of men in uniform and civilians that are against them. One of the high profile assassinations that they carried out in 1989 was that of US Army Colonel James Rowe, founder of US Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) Course. It is also reported that the NPAs recruit children as combatants which is a violation of children’s rights. Because of their atrocities the NPAs were declared by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization and as so did the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy.

It is estimated that the strength of the CPP/NPA has reduced dramatically in recent years. During its peak in 1987 the group has about 25,200 members with 15,500 firearms. By the end of 2009 their strength was only 4,702 with 4,895 firearms. The number of barangays or villages where it has influence was estimated at 8,500 in 1987, but in 2009 it was 1,077 or only 2.5% of the total 42,000 barangays.

The Philippines is now a newly industrializing country and is the 45^th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP. By 2050 the Philippines is projected by HSBC to become the 16^th largest economy in the world if it can sustain its good economic indicators such as educational opportunity and democratic government or strong rule of law. Ironically the CPP/NPA depends on negative indicators like corruption, weak economy, and social instability in the government to sustain its armed struggle. Without these adverse conditions the people have no reason to support or sympathize with it. Worse, most people now believe that communism is a failed ideology. Judging from the steady decline of its memberships, the NPA’s chance to overthrow the government through armed struggle is indeed bleak, or that it would take them long years to succeed if they could ever do it at all.   

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