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==Related legal action==
==Related legal action==
In March 1988, a US lawsuit was filed by [[Rogelio Roxas]] against former Philippine dictator, [[Ferdinand Marcos]]. Roxas alleged that Marcos had confiscated crates of gold bullion and a one-tonne gold [[Buddharupa|Buddha]] he had found in 1971, while searching for the Yamashita treasure, north of Manila.<ref>[http://uniset.ca/other/cs6/969P2d1209.html "Roger ROXAS and The Golden Budha Corporation vs Ferdinand E. MARCOS and Imelda Marcos"]Access date: [[November 14]] [[2007]]</ref> Roxas died prematurely in suspicious circumstances, leading to suggestions that he was murdered. A jury in Honolulu awarded $22 billion in compensatory damages that after the jury verdict had increased with interest to over $40billion. The jury did not award punitive damages. On [[November 17]] [[1998]], the Hawaii Supreme Court reversed the $41 billion judgment against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. The court found insufficient evidence that Roxas had actually discovered the gold bullion while treasure hunting north of Manila in 1971.
In March of 1988, a US lawsuit was filed by [[Rogelio Roxas]] against former Philippine dictator, [[Ferdinand Marcos]] and his wife [[Imelda Marcos]]. Roxas alleged that he was a treasure hunter who in 1971 was searching for Yamashita's gold. Roxas claimed that deep in a cave north of Manilla he found a sealed concrete chamber. He claimed that he opened the chamber and found crates of gold bullion and a one-ton gold [[Buddharupa|Buddha]] with a screw-off head that was filled with diamonds. Roxas claims he took what he and his men could carry -- the Buddha and 17 gold bars. Others claimed to have seen this portion of the treasure. Then Roxas claimed that Marcos confiscated the gold, and had Roxas arrested and tortured.<ref>[http://uniset.ca/other/cs6/969P2d1209.html "Roger ROXAS and The Golden Budha Corporation vs Ferdinand E. MARCOS and Imelda Marcos"]Access date: [[November 14]] [[2007]]</ref> Roxas died prematurely in suspicious circumstances, leading to suggestions that he was murdered. A jury in Honolulu awarded $22 billion in compensatory damages -- representing the estimated value of the entire chamber filled with gold. The amount of the final judgment after adding pre-judgment interest exceeded $40 billion. However, on November 17, 1998, the Hawaii Supreme Court reversed the $22 billion portion of the judgment against the Marcoses (the chamber filled with gold). Nevertheless, the Court sustained the portion of the verdict that found that Marcos had converted the golden Buddha and 17 bars of gold. With respect to the claim for the Golden Buddha and the 17 bars of gold, the Hawaii Supreme Court specifically found as follows: 1) “There Was Sufficient Evidence To Support The Jury's Special Finding That Ferdinand Converted The Treasure That Roxas Found”; and 2) “There was sufficient evidence to support the jury's determination that Roxas "found" the treasure pursuant to Philippine law.” The case was remanded to the trial court for a new trial on the value of the converted golden Buddha statue and gold bars. Thus, there has been a judicial finding based upon substantial evidence that at least some portion of Yamashita's gold was found.<ref>http://uniset.ca/other/cs6/969P2d1209.html</ref>
The matter was remanded to the trial court to determine the value of the Golden Buddha and the 17 bars of gold. The matter was heard on February 29, 2000,<ref>http://starbulletin.com/2000/02/29/news/story3.html</ref> and the Golden Buddha Corp. (the successor in interest to Roxas' claim) has a judgment against Imelda Marcos in her personal capacity to the extent of her interest in the Marcos estate in the principal amount of $13,275,848.37 plus taxable cost of $61,074.54.<ref>http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news05_jan28_2006</ref> That judgment was affirmed by the Hawaii Supreme Court on November 25, 2005.<ref>http://hawaii.gov/jud/opinions/sct/2005/24605sdo.htm</ref>
<ref>[http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ctcvlc96.pdf "Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996] Access date: [[November 18]] [[2007]].</ref>


==Yamashita's gold in popular culture==
==Yamashita's gold in popular culture==

Revision as of 02:32, 28 August 2008

Tomoyuki Yamashita, 1945
Prince Yasuhito Chichibu

Template:Totally-disputed Yamashita's gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Japanese forces during World War II and hidden in caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines. The theory has been particularly popularised by Sterling Seagrave but is disputed by other historians.[1][2]

The looting and the alleged cover-up

Prominent among those arguing for the existence of Yamashita's gold are Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave, who have written two books relating to the subject: The Yamato Dynasty: the Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family (2000) and Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold (2003). They have supported their claims with CD-ROMs containing 900 megabytes of documents, maps and photographs, available with the initial edition of Gold Warriors.

The Seagraves contend that looting was organized on a massive scale, by both yakuza gangsters such as Yoshio Kodama, and the highest levels of Japanese society, including Emperor Hirohito.[3] The Japanese government intended that loot from Southeast Asia would finance Japan's war effort.[4] The Seagraves allege that Hirohito appointed his brother, Prince Yasuhito Chichibu, to head a secret organization called Kin no yuri ("Golden Lily"), for this purpose. Many of those who knew the locations of the loot were killed during the war, or later tried by the Allies for war crimes and executed or incarcerated.[5] Yamashita himself was executed for war crimes on February 23 1946.

The stolen property reportedly included many different kinds of valuables looted from banks, depositories, temples, churches, other commercial premises, mosques, museums and private homes.[6] It takes its name from General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who assumed command of Japanese forces in the Philippines in 1944.

According to various accounts, the loot was initially concentrated in Singapore, from where it was later relayed to the Philippines.[7] The Japanese hoped to ship the treasure from the Philippines to the Japanese home islands after the war ended. As the Pacific War progressed, Allied submarines and aircraft inflicted increasingly heavy losses on Japanese merchant shipping. Some ships carrying loot back to Japan were sunk.

The Seagraves and a few others[8] have claimed that United States military intelligence operatives located much of the loot; colluded with Hirohito and other senior Japanese figures to conceal its existence, and; used it to finance US covert intelligence operations around the world during the Cold War, though there is little evidence and no significant mainstream support for this.

Many individuals and consortia, both Filipino and foreign, continue to search for treasure sites. A number of accidental deaths, injuries and financial losses incurred by treasure hunters have been reported.[9]

Treasure skeptics

University of the Philippines professor Rico Jose has questioned the theory that treasure from mainland South East Asia was transported to the Philippines: "By 1943 the Japanese were no longer in control of the seas... It doesn't make sense to bring in something that valuable here when you know it's going to be lost to the Americans anyway. The more rational thing would have been to send it to Taiwan or China."[10]

Philippines National Historical Institute chairman and historian Ambeth Ocampo commented: “Two of the wealth myths I usually encounter are the Yamashita treasure and gossip that the Cojuangco fortune was founded on a bag of money…” Ocampo also said: "For the past 50 years many people, both Filipinos and foreigners, have spent their time, money and energy in search of Yamashita's elusive treasure.” Professor Ocampo noted “What makes me wonder is that for the past 50 years, despite all the treasure hunters, their maps, oral testimony and sophisticated metal detectors, nobody has found a thing.”[11]

In March of 1988, a US lawsuit was filed by Rogelio Roxas against former Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos. Roxas alleged that he was a treasure hunter who in 1971 was searching for Yamashita's gold. Roxas claimed that deep in a cave north of Manilla he found a sealed concrete chamber. He claimed that he opened the chamber and found crates of gold bullion and a one-ton gold Buddha with a screw-off head that was filled with diamonds. Roxas claims he took what he and his men could carry -- the Buddha and 17 gold bars. Others claimed to have seen this portion of the treasure. Then Roxas claimed that Marcos confiscated the gold, and had Roxas arrested and tortured.[12] Roxas died prematurely in suspicious circumstances, leading to suggestions that he was murdered. A jury in Honolulu awarded $22 billion in compensatory damages -- representing the estimated value of the entire chamber filled with gold. The amount of the final judgment after adding pre-judgment interest exceeded $40 billion. However, on November 17, 1998, the Hawaii Supreme Court reversed the $22 billion portion of the judgment against the Marcoses (the chamber filled with gold). Nevertheless, the Court sustained the portion of the verdict that found that Marcos had converted the golden Buddha and 17 bars of gold. With respect to the claim for the Golden Buddha and the 17 bars of gold, the Hawaii Supreme Court specifically found as follows: 1) “There Was Sufficient Evidence To Support The Jury's Special Finding That Ferdinand Converted The Treasure That Roxas Found”; and 2) “There was sufficient evidence to support the jury's determination that Roxas "found" the treasure pursuant to Philippine law.” The case was remanded to the trial court for a new trial on the value of the converted golden Buddha statue and gold bars. Thus, there has been a judicial finding based upon substantial evidence that at least some portion of Yamashita's gold was found.[13] The matter was remanded to the trial court to determine the value of the Golden Buddha and the 17 bars of gold. The matter was heard on February 29, 2000,[14] and the Golden Buddha Corp. (the successor in interest to Roxas' claim) has a judgment against Imelda Marcos in her personal capacity to the extent of her interest in the Marcos estate in the principal amount of $13,275,848.37 plus taxable cost of $61,074.54.[15] That judgment was affirmed by the Hawaii Supreme Court on November 25, 2005.[16]

Notes and references

  1. ^ Asian Pacific Post, "Searching for the lost treasure of Yamashita" (Wednesday, August 24 2005) Access date: January 10 2007. "Enduring Myths by Ambeth R. Ocampo (January 17 2004)" Access date: December 6 2007.
  2. ^ The loot of Luzon, Tokyo gold buried in the Philippines–really?
  3. ^ Chalmers Johnson, "The Looting of Asia" [review of Gold Warriors, London Review of Books v. 25, no. 22 (November 20, 2003)]
  4. ^ Johnson, Ibid.
  5. ^ Johnson, Ibid.
  6. ^ Johnson, Ibid.
  7. ^ Johnson, Ibid.
  8. ^ Johnson, Ibid.
  9. ^ See, for example, Asian Pacific Post, 2005, Ibid and; BBC, "WWII Japanese bomb kills Philippines treasure hunters" (March 22 1998). Access date: January 10 2007.
  10. ^ Asian Pacific Post 2005, Ibid.
  11. ^ Ocampo 2004, Ibid.
  12. ^ "Roger ROXAS and The Golden Budha Corporation vs Ferdinand E. MARCOS and Imelda Marcos"Access date: November 14 2007
  13. ^ http://uniset.ca/other/cs6/969P2d1209.html
  14. ^ http://starbulletin.com/2000/02/29/news/story3.html
  15. ^ http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news05_jan28_2006
  16. ^ http://hawaii.gov/jud/opinions/sct/2005/24605sdo.htm
  17. ^ "Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure (2001)". Retrieved 2007-07-16.
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