WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Yamashita's Gold 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:17.279 Thinking Sideways. I don't stories of things we simply don't 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:22.439 know the answer to. Hire. Welcome to another episode of 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:29.200 Thinking Sideways. I am Joe, joined as always by Yeah. Well, 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.120 and we're here to talk, of course, to talk about 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:35.360 another mystery. Yeah indeed, yes, if that's what you're into 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.519 these days. Yeah, it's what the kids dick until we 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.680 become a cooking show. That's not until next week. Don't 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.280 tell anybody how very good at that. Yeah. Alright, So 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.720 this week we're going to talk about a very famous 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.680 lost treasure, which you've probably heard of. If you haven't 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:54.280 heard about it, well you're in for kind of a treat. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.640 This one is called Yamashta's Gold. Also notice of the 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.160 Masta treasure. You probably we know of it as Yamashita 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.560 because that's how it spelled, but the actually pronounced Yamashta. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.680 Oh is it really? Yeah? Yeah, I didn't realize that. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.640 I remember because the first time I heard about this 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:13.440 is what it was like two years ago when we 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.120 talked to Roy Baton and he mentioned this when we 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.120 were talking to him after we had finished the recording, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.119 and he had mentioned it, and he'd call it Yamashida 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.120 as well. So I just a lot of people. Yeah, 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.240 I figured that was the correct pronunciation that you researched 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.400 this and not me. Yeah, yeah, you never know. I 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:35.080 mean maybe his it's actually a name like a somebody's 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.280 given names, So maybe maybe he pronoun he actually did 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:42.360 pronounce Yamashida. The Yamashta of yamash says Gold was General 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.240 Tamayuki Yamashta, who was in command of Japanese forces in 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.200 the Philippines from nineteen and as you know, what was 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:55.160 going on back then, it's like oh war, Yeah, the 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.320 second big one we had, the Second U. The Japanese 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.920 had been special guests of the Philippine people for a 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:11.079 while now, yeah, and then along about late nineteen four, 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.240 a bunch of Americans with guns showed up and said 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.880 something in the order we want it back. Um, yeah, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.959 we gotta take this here back. Let's talk about the treasure. Though. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.120 The treasure came from all over the place. The Japanese 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.959 invaded and occupied a lot of countries before and during 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.480 World War Two, as you guys know, brutally. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.919 it was there. They were kind of harsh. Uh. Those 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:41.840 countries include China, Korea, Burma, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Singapore 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.200 and of course the Philippines, and of course besides me 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.440 and kind of brutal, they also looted the places for 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.280 all they could find. Like they took a lot of gold, silver, platinum, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:58.040 precious gems and stuff like that I would do. Yeah, Yeah, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.799 it worked so hard for this. Yeah. According to some people, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.280 the most of the loot was shipped down to Singapore, 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.440 whereas the reportedly was cataloged, and then it was shipped 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.160 off to the Philippines, which is sort of on the 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.959 way to Japan. From the Philippines, the booty was sent 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.560 on to Japan, supposedly along with the valuables that they 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.120 stole from the Philippines. Also, uh, and nobody knows how 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.120 much of this loot actually made it to Japan, if 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.560 any of it. I'm sure a lot of it did. Yeah. 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.519 And nineteen two, though, after the Battle of Midway, the 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.400 American Navy began to dominate the Western Pacific and started 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.000 sinking a lot of Japanese ships. So probably a few 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.119 of these had loot on board. Also quite probably. Yeah, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.120 it's sitting down. They're waiting for you if you want 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.880 to go find it. Storal. Yeah, I know at this 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.040 point that then the treasure was kind of stuck in 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.880 the Philippines because it's kind of wasteful. It's sitting on 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.280 a ship that's gonna get sunk, So what to do period? Yeah, 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.320 that's an idea. Yeah. Yeah. The US invaded the Philippines 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.320 in October ninety four. Msh A fought on for Aumust 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:06.200 a year, eventually surrendered in September, and to keep himself 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.800 occupied in the interim, he did the usual military stuff, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:10.720 but also started hiding all the loots so that it 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.080 wouldn't fall into Yankee hands. Makes sense, right, Yeah, and 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.240 I do it. It has claimed that the treasure wound 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.080 up being stashed in between a hundred seventy two and 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.720 a hundred seventy five places, although I've heard other other 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.400 stories where it just was stashed in one enormous cavern. 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.080 That that is the one enormous cavern is kind of 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.880 the fantastic version that I've come across. Yeah, that's always 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.240 the first one that pops up on your searches. I 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.720 don't know, it seems like it'd be easier to just 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.120 do one. Depends on how much stuff you goss to 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.240 throw it all in that cave, put it under the dragon. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.200 That's all idea. You go, recruiter dragon. Indiana Jones didn't 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.520 show up in your file. You're finding It's been always 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.440 been my dream to find something like this, So would 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.359 that be great anyway? Yeah. The method that they used 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.039 was typically this. It would d to suit the hiding place, 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.200 let's see a cave, and then a bunch of booty 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.920 would be hauled in with soldiers or slave labor or both. 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.760 Engineers would rig up booby traps so anybody trying to 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.280 get in there would get killed, and then the cave 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.320 entrance would be sealed or blasted shut with everybody inside, 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.120 so that way they wouldn't be able to tell anybody 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.599 where the treasure was. That does sound a whole lot 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:27.200 like Indiana Jones. Yeah. Yeah, I want my whip and everything. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:33.880 We're going. We're going many Incidentally, Uh, the Monster's gold 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.159 was featured and not even though it was not named, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.120 but it's in Neil Stevens Neil Stevenson's Cryptanomicon, which I 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.440 know I plugged before. Yeah, don't you say you've mentioned 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.599 this book before? Yeah, Boilers. One of the main characters 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.000 in the book is is a Japanese guy who wands 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.920 up getting conscripted in one of these into hiding some 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.240 fabulous amount of stuff in this cave because he's a 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.200 clever guy. What they do is they seal it shut 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.080 with him and a few other people inside, and then 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.520 they flooded they haven't heard river, basically to flood the cavern. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.120 And but he's he's engineered, he's engineering himself a way out, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:10.320 so he actually escapes. Yeah, I know, I know, I 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:16.159 should have probably spoilers. Yeah wait, wait, go back, we 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:21.800 can let edit it in you're ready. Spoilers. The legend 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.440 of your Master's Gold has never gone away, and for 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.039 decades people have been looking for this, a lot of 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.920 people and they're still doing it today, and quite a 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.360 few of them have gotten killed trying. Also, nobody has 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:39.000 ever found the treasure, except for one guy named Rol Rojas, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.919 who will talk about a little bit later on. Maybe 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.000 maybe maybe maybe if you're good, No, I'm sorry, I 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.599 meant maybe he found it. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:53.359 that's yeah, she's right, yeah yeah yeah, or found a 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.760 part of it. We totally misinterpreted that. Yeah, well, let's 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.880 talk about theories then, all right, let's that's a pretty 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.719 our summation, So I guess we can talk about some 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.280 of the theories. Yeah, there's a lot to go through 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.920 here in theories a little bit. Yeah, there's several theories. 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.320 One is that it's real and it's out there waiting 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.680 to be discovered. Still, so this is is it Are 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.720 we doing kind of heading theories right that we sometimes 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.080 with my stories will do theory one the gold is real, 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.400 but sub theory one the gold is real, and this 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.200 thing are we doing that sort of thing is about 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:30.000 the construct here. If by subhead the gold is real, 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.040 most theories and then subhead are heading to the gold 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.960 is not real. Alright, So if we assume the gold 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.000 is real, the theories are the theories are that, well, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.200 they just did a really good job hiding it and 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.480 it has yet to be found. But that's not you know, 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.120 it's not really much to say about that one. So 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.640 this is something that that struck me a little odd. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.440 If the job, if indeed the Japanese did gather all 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:02.080 of this sub and they're looting everybody, why is it 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.920 always the gold that everybody talks about. There would have 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.680 been all kinds of precious stones and things like that. 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.280 I imagine artwork would have been collected. But why is 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.160 it we only ever talk about the gold. I don't 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.280 understand what the I mean, I understand that people have 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.400 an obscene lust for gold, but it's just funny to 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.080 me that that's the only thing that ever gets brought up. 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.280 Oh yeah, I just I just said that, you Masha's 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.760 Gold sounds like a cooler title, and you know, your 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.480 master's treasure. Maybe that's why maybe ems salt stolen stuff. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.360 Yeah that doesn't sound so great. Yeah it's lout. Yeah, 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.240 but obviously they did. They did gather up you know, 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.480 jewelry and jam everything, plat and the silver, a lot 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.560 of stuff besides gold. Yeah, they hoovered it all up. Yeah, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.280 well they kind of. I mean, yeah, they're not the 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.360 only ones that we're doing that kind of stuff in 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.719 that exact same time frame. I mean, that was kind 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.000 of a common practice. But it's still it's funny, is 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.440 that in this particular story that it's so it's just 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.280 the gold that everyone talks about. So the Philippines are 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.960 still still do have enough kind of undeveloped lush areas 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.600 that this is a feasible thing that it just hasn't 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.760 been discovered yet. Yeah, it's yeah, I have no I 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:17.360 I got to be honest, I have no kind of 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:23.960 scope of how saturated the population is on the Philippines. Um, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.080 you know, I think it's there's some I don't know 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:27.800 much about the Philippines, to be honest with you, I 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.240 know some islands have a fairly decent sized population and 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.719 summer practically deserted. Sure. Yeah, because that would be my 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.559 question about this is you know, is it even feasible 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.880 that there would be a hundred and seventy caches of well, 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.400 it's a pretty big area. Yeah, And you know, most 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.480 of those islands tend to have all of their majority 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.880 of their population centered in one or two major cities 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.880 reports so that leaves a lot of undeveloped rural areas. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:00.960 So I think that's why everybody's kind of saying, well, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.000 it's still got to be out there. Yeah, Okay, Yeah, 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.000 I still don't know exactly how the number one seventy 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.000 two hiding places where that exactly came up from? Some 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.040 and some of those are not all on land either. 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.360 Some of them, like around forty or so, or are 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.960 supposedly underwater somewhere like an underwater cave or Yeah. But 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:21.920 he found a map that he was playing Tic Tac 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.520 toe on and interpret in every ax is a location 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:32.520 for Yeah. Yeah, well our next there is this, which 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.079 is that your Monster's gold really was real, but the 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.120 Americans got their hands on it. That's in this series 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.679 of advanced in the book that's called Gold Warriors by 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.400 Sterling and Peggy Seagrave. Did you read any of this 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.559 of the book? Yeah? No, I um. I went out 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.200 to Amazon dot Com and I read the description, and 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.959 then I went to the reviews, and the reviews were 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.439 very useful. They save me from wasting my time with this. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.200 Well I read they They put out some like three 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:06.560 or four page summation of their stuff, and I found 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:12.520 that and I read through it, and they're really stretching 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.280 in my opinion, And I know we're going to go 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.600 into some of this, but I was really surprised at 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.560 some of the correlations. And I'm using air quotes here 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.600 that they made. Yeah, they took they took a lot 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.720 of liberties with the truth here. Well, let's let's happen. 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:27.960 So they what what they say is an intelligence operative 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.440 is probably from interrogating captured Japanese. They got onto the 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.360 scent of the booty somehow, and then um, they really 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.959 couldn't interrogate and torture Yamashta, so they grabbed this driver 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.720 and tortured him for a while until he confessed. And 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.679 since he was too much, this driver, he was driving 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.560 them all over all these locations, presumably so he was 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:53.040 underwater and stuff. Yeah, exactly. Uh, and then they used 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.959 all this lute that they found to fund black operations 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:00.280 all around the world, including including bribing politicians, buying elections, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.079 and all kinds of stuff. And their book is supposedly 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.280 very well documented, but to find out the sources of 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.600 their information you have to buy a bunch of CDs 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.440 separately from the book. Oh yeah, I don't actually list 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.839 their their references and sources like every other book I've 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.760 ever read does. Well, I think that they do have. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.079 I think they do have citations in the book. But 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.000 apparently if you want all their information then you have 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.680 to buy the CDs. Yeah and so, and that's a 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.520 whole separate price in the books they found the gold Yeah, 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:36.360 I know, obviously, Yeah, this is this is stuff. Yeah, 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.080 I know. It's kind of like kind of like the 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:39.720 gold Rush, you know, the guys who really made out 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.600 like bandits were the guys that want and sold sold 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.200 shovels and stuff like that to all the prospectors. You know, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.760 prospectors all weren't broke, almost of them did. Anyway, My favorite, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.840 my my favorite of all the reviews on there was 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.440 a one star review from a guy named Angus Waycott 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:57.600 that it was written a book called a book called Sodo, 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.319 Japan's Island in Exile and the Sea Graves in their 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.720 book claim that more than a thousand Korean slave laborers 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.280 vanished without a trace on Sodo Island, and they cite 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.040 Angus Waycott's book to support this. But according to Waycott, 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:20.120 his book says no such things. That's a direct quote, right, Yeah, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.679 that was on the Amazon review. Yeah yeah, Elsie said. 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.640 He said it was a deliberate misrepresentation and he also 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:32.520 said it was shameful. And so you know, after reading 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.199 that review, I just figured I was going to leave 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.000 it at that. I think you guys can go read 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:41.000 the reviews on Amazon and decide for yourselves. But I 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.480 think support for this theory is not really not really there. Well, 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.520 and like I said, I I read some of their 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.920 stuff and it is really thin and there is a 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.080 lot of leaps of faith made in it. Yeah, a 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.040 lot of a lot of the other critical reviews out 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.520 there said the same thing. That's just poorly sourced. And 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:01.800 one under one guy said, this would make a fine 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:03.800 little thriller to reach it read at the beach when 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:09.840 you're on vacation. Yeah, you shouldn't treat it as nonfiction. Nice, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.480 So I will put that theory to bed, all right. Yeah. 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.720 The next another theory is that under the Golden real 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.040 thing is that maybe some Japanese soldiers who had knowledge 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.160 of at least some of these places have have gone 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.040 back in the decades since and actually found some of 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.640 this stuff and spirited spirited out of the country. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:34.280 I like it. Yeah that makes sense. Yeah yeah. What 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.200 does not make sense to you? Well, I'm just I'm 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:40.760 just thinking about the state of Japan after the war 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.760 and everything that's going on. Well, not like you'd have 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.320 to wait, like somebody would have to wait at least 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.280 a decade or two before they could even think to 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.120 do it. Oh yeah, I mean, now you'd have to 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.200 you have to wait quite a while just for he 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.200 just for emotions to die down in the Philippines, because 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.560 let's face it, they didn't behave themselves perfectly when they 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:03.840 were there, and so you probably want to wait a 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.200 decade or two when you went back, unless it was 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.960 you know, in remote areas of the Philippines and you 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.640 just get a boat, I mean, oh, yeah, sneak on shore, 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.080 or it's not on shore, it's underwater, and you just 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.080 just come back. Yeah, that's that's a possibility. Uh, this 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.200 is a this is a fine theory, and it's entirely possible, 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.440 but it's sure speculation and oh it's absolutely yeah, and 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:32.760 I'm just throwing it into waste everybody's time. Thanks. So, yeah, possible, 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.480 but based on the evidence, I've got to give it 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.880 a fail. I guess you could, um, you know that 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.840 kind of gold bribe some officials in the Philippines. Well 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:43.840 that's that's true too. I mean you could you could 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:45.360 go to them and just say, hey, look, I know 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.760 where there's a huge stash of gold. Yeah, let's let 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.200 let's dig it up and you can have half. Or 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.400 you don't even say that, or you just sneak in 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:55.880 and if you get caught sneaking out, you say, here's 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.240 some gold, have some gold. Well, yeah, and as long 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.160 as somebody melt sit down. I'm assuming, of course, that 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:06.120 it's in bar form and not in whatever original jewelry 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.680 shape it was. If it's in bar form, they're in 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:11.680 turn going to have to turn around and melt it 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.240 down themselves. Then whoever being bribe? Because what do they 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:19.120 call it when they stamp gold? I think it's called hallmarks, okay, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.240 because it would definitely have that hallmark on it to 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.680 indicate where it was from. And I would be a 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.640 little and I guess if you're willing to take a bribe, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.160 you don't really care where it came from. But that 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.680 could cause a lot of a lot of alarms to 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:35.360 go off if you then turn around and try and 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.880 pass that off. Do you think that was something that 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.440 was documented, Like do you think they have records in 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.000 the places that they were stolen from that these specific 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.040 gold bars were stolen they you know, it just depends. 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.600 I mean if the records survived the war or not. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:51.840 A lot of buildings got destroyed. It seems like the 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.400 sort of thing you would destroy if you were taking stuff. 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.600 You might, yeah, but I mean if if if something 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.480 is stamped, you know, such and such bank Shanghai, China, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.040 now then that's that's kind of a giveaway. Yeah. Yeah, Actually, 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.320 the hallmarks do do play a small part in our 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.280 story here in the future. Yeah. Yeah, well, let's let's 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.840 move on to our next theory. It's real and somebody 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.000 has actually found some of it. That's the Yeah, that 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.000 is the theory. Yeah, there is some evidence for this theory, 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.199 unlike our our the series and which are all kind 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.480 of like not really much evidence, not really any evidence. Yeah, 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.480 this is Roelio Rojas and we're gonna tell his story 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.719 and it's kind of interesting. There's more information on this 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.240 one because it was litigated in the nineteen eighties and 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.959 nineties and so there's a fair amount of information available 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.840 for this and people people testified in court and stuff 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.600 like that, so there's a legal documentation. Yeah, yeah, there was, 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.399 there was a lawsuit. Rohelio Rojas was a locksmith in 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.320 Baggio City, the Philippines, which is on the island of Luzon, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.280 which you know, for all of you who know all 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.120 about the Philippines is where Middla also is. I think 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.840 it's the most populous island in the Philippines. And again 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.000 I was that was too busy research this to research 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:05.000 stuff like that. He besides being a locksmith, was also 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.359 a coin collector and a treasure hunter. In he met 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.159 a man named Albert Futagami in Bagio City who was 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.560 a fellow treasure hunter and they became friends. Fuchigami was 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.840 the son of a Filipino woman and a Japanese soldier 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:25.960 and uh Eventually Fuchigami took Rhelio into his confidence and 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.679 told him his father had drawn a map identifying the 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:34.160 location of one of the treasure trows of your Monster's gold. Yeah. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.680 He also around the same time met this other guy 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.760 who has an unpronounceable name who claimed to have served 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:49.760 as General Yamashta's interpreter during World War two. Shibo Okuba Okubauba. Yeah, 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.360 that sounds about right. He told him that this interpreter 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.800 said that during the war he had been taken to 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.880 some tunnels controlled by General Yamashta in order to get 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.160 some silver to pay for food for the troops. And 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.560 he said he saw boxes of various sizes. It contained 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.240 gold and silver, and also he saw a golden Buddhist 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.000 statue which was at a convent very very close by. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.359 And uh, so, with the clusive he got from this 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.960 guy and the map, that he got from Puchigamy. He 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.359 partnered up with Fuchigami and they hired some laborers to 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.240 search for the treasure. They got a permit and everything 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.800 for it. You're supposed to because it was on government lands, 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.720 they're gonna be looking. Oh yeah, that would be important. Yeah, 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.520 it kind of would be. Uh. In nineteen seventy, they 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.240 began digging in up near the Baggio General Hospital in 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:34.000 Bagio City, and after seven months of searching and digging, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.959 they broke into a system of tunnels underground. You know, 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.920 that's a good thing, would be exciting. Yeah, And inside 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.520 that the tunnel they found wiring and radio's band at swords, rifles, 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:49.680 and a human skeleton wearing a Japanese army uniform. Yeah. 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.160 Not to be fair enough that that was so uncommon 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.480 for Japanese soldiers to have tunnels, right, yeah, not really 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.000 fairly common. Yeah yeah, so mean, yeah for hiding in 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.240 that kind of natural cave systems are great for that. Yeah. 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.040 I don't know if this was a natural cave system 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.960 or what. Okay, I presumed it was a natural cave, 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.480 even unnatural, I mean that was that was a pretty 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.000 solid part of their warfare. Strategy wasn't it was tunnels, 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.080 I think. I think a lot of armies do that. Yeah, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.679 so it's not yeah yeah, just because the tunnel excess 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.560 doesn't mean treasure. It doesn't mean it was there for treasure. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:26.640 But they spent about a month in this tunnel though 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.000 actually it was a whole series of tunnels, and they 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.160 explored and they didn't find any find anything. And then 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.879 Rojas got himself a metal detector and went around and 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.760 got himself a strong signal. In one place, they dug 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.520 a little bit and they hit concrete and they hammered 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.680 through the concrete. I'm not sure how long it take 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.600 to break through, but we probably, yeah, could. They found 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.840 a room below below the tunnel, and inside this room 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.959 they found a gold buddha, a solid gold buddha, yeah, 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.439 which according to Rojas, about three feet in height. It was. 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:00.760 It was really heavy. It took ten men to get 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:02.199 it to the surface. That you had to use a 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.520 chain block, hoist and ropes, and then they rolled it 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:09.240 on logs through the tunnels apparently, and rouse guests was 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.040 probably about a metric ton and he told his men 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:13.720 to take it to his house and put it in 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.159 the closet. Wait a second, I know, Wait a second. 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.240 It takes ten guys to haul this out of the cave. 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.080 And he's like, oh, yeah, then take it to my 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.240 house and put it in the closet. Yeah, how do 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:31.240 you get the rolling lodge through your house? This is unspecified. Yeah, 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.919 I don't know. Yeah, this whole part, this part of this, 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.280 the of his story mystifies me. Well, there's there's other 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.959 parts that mystify you and then mystify me too. But okay, 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:47.119 he did manage to persuade the persuaded jury to believe 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.639 his story. I know. But yeah, I gotta be honest 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.560 with you. The thing that mystifies me is that he 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.040 was a treasure hunter who somehow didn't have a metal detector, 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:00.680 Like he had to go out and say, oh, I'm 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:05.879 gonna go get a metal detector. Yeah, but in my mind, 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.600 like treasure hunters, the staple of treasure hunting is metal detector. 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.480 Indiana Jones never had a metal detector on. He wasn't 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.800 a treasure hunter. Yeah, he was, he kind of was. 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.720 He was an adventurer, he was an archaeologist. He was 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.560 an archaeologist. He had better reason to have the metal 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.919