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Yamashita's gold
Yamashita's gold is the name for loot that Japanese forces supposedly took from across Southeast Asia in World War II. Stories say they hid it in caves and tunnels in the Philippines. The name comes from General Tomoyuki Yamashita. No treasure has been proven.
Folklore is retold; versions differ.
Sources: Wikipedia: Yamashita's gold (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikidata (CC0)
The story
Yamashita's gold is a legend about treasure that Japanese forces supposedly took from across Southeast Asia in World War II and hid in the Philippines. It takes its name from General Tomoyuki Yamashita. He took command in the Philippines in 1944. The US Army convicted him of war crimes and executed him in 1946. Most experts doubt that the treasure exists.
The authors Sterling and Peggy Seagrave say that a secret group called Golden Lily took part in the looting, and that US officers later found it. Several of these claims lack sources. Historian Ricardo Trota Jose asks why anyone would move loot to the Philippines in 1943, when Japan was losing control of the seas. Historian Ambeth Ocampo notes that fifty years of searching has found nothing.
In 1988, a treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, sued Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in a Hawaii court. He said that he found a chamber of gold near Baguio in 1971, and that Marcos's men took it. A jury awarded a very large sum in 1996, but the Hawaii Supreme Court cut the damages in 1998. The case rests mostly on Roxas's own statement. Searchers still dig, and some have been hurt.