In subsequent days, the princes escaped to Japan by submarine, and three months later, on 2 September 1945, General Yamashita surrendered to American troops. Unfortunately, some people never come back. It was time to see an excavation in progress. I tried not to think about it as I descended the first sixty-foot shaft with a bamboo ladder that afforded my already wet and slippery wellies only about three inches of grip before my toes became jammed against the edge of the tunnel. Without receiving the whole story on the events of the day, many have classified this case as an unsolved mystery. They looted museums, banks, gold reserves, private art collections even the sacred graves of ancient tombs were pillaged. I was moved by Cathcarts story; it was epic, tragic and inspirational. Since Feb. 12, with the full sanction and protection of President Corazon Aquinos government, McDougalds group has been tunneling more than 20 feet into the catacombs under Manilas oldest structure, 16th-Century Ft. Santiago. The next morning, Bob reported that his friend was missing. The organisation was named Kin no yuri, meaning Golden Lily, the name of a poem written by the Emperor. trailer The first-hand accounts corroborated those of Robert Curtis, who has so often been unjustly discredited in the story. They were not disciplined and were not dowsing for danger, he sternly proclaimed. Do you know about Yamashitas gold?. Klaus riding safely; shotgun in his chauffeured tricycle Fair enough. He described the odds as 5% more chance than highly probable, approaching absolute certainty.. I am sorry that you must die for me, I repeated, over and over. There is every indication that this cave-in was caused by a booby trap, McDougald said, reporting the results of an investigation by his teams geologist and resident mining engineers. I was tempted and left with a belief that their site was an authentic Japanese treasure site. Even when I held the dowsing rods, they were charged. You can also find her on Twitter. When asked about Bilyeu one month after his disappearance, Fenn said that he did not feel any sense of responsibility but he wanted to take part in the search to find Bilyeu. . Okubo also confided that the General had in his possession a solid gold buddha, which he kept in the convent where he stayed, across from the hospital, before depositing it in a vault beneath the hospital grounds. Like Cheatham, Cathcarts team discovered Curtis in Las Vegas, and made a videotape detailing how he had spent many hours with Marcos in 1975, and had visited the president in his summer palace, where he saw the distinctively styled golden buddha, which (he later testified) he had examined closely, including its removable head. And so, while we all love a story of lost gold and would thrill to plunge a shovel into a green hillside that we suspect conceals an endless fortune, the urban legend of Yamashita's Gold is another of those most unlikely to have a happy ending. He was integrity personified. In total, Klaus had the support of a dozen or so workers; humble villagers, not craftsmen. They have a tendency to overreach, exaggerating the roles of Japanese gangsters and ex-military American bit-players when the bankers, politicians and CIA operatives are scary enough. Cobra blood is thought to contain vital regenerative qualities and is said to bond the drinker to the cobra family The Seagraves seminal whistle-blowing book, Gold Warriors. It did not work that way. The year was 1944, and the Japanese had spent the previous fifty years pillaging the East of their national treasures; twelve Asian countries in all. It felt like a flamethrower had pierced my stomach and opened me up below my navel. Andrew Gough. Fred C. Dobbs, the protagonist of B. Traven 's 1927 novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the movie of the same name. Andrew Gough, Amelia after her second NDE I was riveted as Cathcart recalled that tragic day and was leaning forward in anticipation as he spoke, when suddenly his carer abruptly corrected him and blurted out facts about the case that I found startling and incongruous from a healthcare professional who had claimed to know nothing about the affair. The vaults would remain secret. Each day after class she dug in the back garden of the schoolyard. They followed that with a treasure chamber at around a depth of approximately one hundred feet, knowing that most treasure hunters would consider that the final prize. We ascended the tunnel system and on the surface above Klaus performed a master class in dowsing. Roxas with the detached head of the golden buddha (from the Roger Roxas Museum in Baguio) Over the next several years the programme was featured on television stations around the world and on YouTube. Roxas would need more time and money in order to proceed, and thus he sold seven of the gold bars and initiated the sale of the golden buddha. They began holding press conferences to try to raise more money in which they claimed to have found tunnels stacked to the ceiling with gold bars (but hadn't thought to take any pictures or bring back any evidence), and these claims sufficiently irked the government to the point that his team was expelled from the country in 1975. There was no follow-up after Bilyeu was pronounced dead. Despite numerous eyewitnesses and various first-hand accounts, most historians doubted the existence of the Black Eagle Trust, let alone the buried treasure hoards, and so I travelled to the Philippines to investigate the story for myself. The Naha tribe were the indigenous people who lived in the Northwest Territories of Canada. One mans wallet was apparently thrown near his remains. Cathcart recounted how one afternoon a notice was sent to law offices across the country, detailing how a Filipino locksmith was suing his president, Ferdinand Marcos, for having stolen a golden buddha and assorted treasure that he had discovered in the Philippines. Goodness knows, hes close. After Oihara departed, Roxas and his brother Danilo began prising the head of the golden buddha with a wooden plank and hammer to determine if it was detachable. Marcos was ruthless. Night fell, and Billy never returned. Neither of us now trusted the other. It was hardly secure. He believed that what he had discovered was the tip of the iceberg; the proverbial teaser that the Japanese placed a short distance above the real prize; a treasure that most seekers would be thrilled with, believing they had found it all, when in fact the real treasures were hidden further below, deep underground. After some time she purchased a new home for her parents and one for herself. When he finally went to look for them, he came upon the skeletons of Willie and Frank lying next to a creek where they had set up camp. Thats incredible, but tell me more. Inspecting the Baguio Hospital artefacts in the Roger Roxas Museum It was difficult to be certain, but I knew what I believed. As the 25 May 1993 golden buddha Supreme Court trial approached, Roxas had been instructed to keep a low profile. Amelia claimed to have been contacted by Ferdinand Marcos, the deceased former president of the Philippines, who thanked her for her prayers and informed her that he was in purgatory. And yet, the man does not charge for his services. For Roxas, it was a puzzle piece he had long sought. If Amelia is correct, was this an orchestrated effort to reclaim the treasure? Bob Curtis. Oihara was there too. The caretaker had lost fingers and toes from chemicals released in the treasure site But the picture changed with the deaths last month of the two Filipino workers, suffocated in a cave-in that McDougalds engineers now attribute to a booby trap left behind by the Japanese. Before he died, Sterling Seagraves participated in Internet forums where he told increasingly unbelievable stories about many people he knew being murdered by the CIA with all sorts of exotic spy weapons "snuffed" was the term he always used. Andrew Gough. He was never seen again. Or we all die. Marcos became the mastermind of a covert gold retrieval operation and acted in partnership with both the Japanese and the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Within hours Roxas was dead. Twenty nerve-racking minutes later we parked up and began a rather gruelling trek through cobra-infested rice paddies. I was not aware that Peggy had passed away the previous year, and that Sterling had only just passed in May 2017, aged 80. Reluctantly, I selected a cobra, which was promptly placed in a barrel-shaped mesh cage. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. While this preceded the Japanese gold heists, each was confiscated as war booty and never returned to its owners. Nope, we had to move on; places to be. So why have so many devoted so much to this tale? My experience with dowsers was not good. Marcos quickly confiscated the booty. They were buried alive. Roxas was shown a search warrant with Pios signature that mentioned something about illegal possession of firearms. The old woman was sensational and described how she and her family had hidden in the hills as the Japanese processed by with an ox pulling a cart that contained what appeared to be a heavy box. Needless to say, Klaus was buoyant with the news. As we stood around discussing the stone and the bent tree, I noticed an elderly woman walking through the rice paddies and suggested we approach her and ask if she remembered the Japanese coming to the area. The driver proceeded to peer out of the passenger-side window, as if he was trying to confirm their identity. He was quietly confident that there was more gold to be discovered. The men asserted that they had been blindfolded and taken to a warehouse, where they had been shown an enormous stash of gold bars. Much to his surprise, and with no background or training in the discipline, Klaus achieved instant success. 26 Apr. Kidd originally left $500,000 behind. Descending into another of Klauss amazing tunnel systems He simply slit her open with his fingers. Andrew Gough. We rode back to Klauss house for what was to be a fascinating evening. I watched a rough cut of the episode and was relieved that Burgess had salvaged it with his skillful editing, and that the tone was objective. In addition, he is a co-founder of Gemini Marine Exploration, the company that specializes in recovery of historical shipwrecks. Klaus and I posing with the priest and the artefacts he discovered at a shallow depth in the ground In August I flew to Manila and was greeted by a group of treasure hunters, including ex-military men, who transported me to a site to the north east. Whats more, during 1974 and 1975 he excavated the tunnel behind the hospital in Baguio and personally witnessed gold bars falling from wooden crates as they were removed from the site. This entire field was part of the Japanese military base, you see., The low-growing tree that points towards the gold Torn Treasure Map 2: Top right side of the map, inside a drawer of the house called "Manito Glade". I was intrigued and found myself engrossed in the mystery once more. Andrew Gough. In Red Dead Redemption 2, you can run out of money fast as there are many things that you need to buy to progress further. Looking slightly perilous at the bottom of the tunnel system with Klaus April 30, 2019 Curtis then used another old miner's trick to attract funding to go back and continue the hunt: he claimed his team's expulsion was the result of being just inches away from a fabulous treasure room worth billions that Marcos wanted for himself. Many return home empty-handed. Reassuringly, he informed me that I was fine and that he had simply performed a tune up a bit of preventative maintenance. The governor claims that there was no evidence of a massacre, so no one can assume that it happened. The United States had stumbled upon the greatest treasure hoards in history, including more gold bullion than was known to be in existence, and would use this unfathomable wealth to influence world affairs, win the Cold War, launch a space programme, and create a new world order. Real or imagined, I was perceived as an expert on the subject. Roxas never saw a penny. After numerous failed attempts they found him. They used the same water from the streams as everyone else and unwittingly infected many of the other men. In addition, American, French, Belgian, British and Australian divers are spending millions of dollars combing the bottom of the Philippine Sea in search of old Spanish galleons and other commercial ships that sank with thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in treasure as long ago as the 1500s. Okubo recounted to Roxas how General Yamashita had transferred large quantities of gold and silver from Manila and stored them in wooden boxes deep underground, accessible by a tunnel complex near Baguio Hospital. However, it was not until she had purchased a third new car that the authorities became suspicious, and she swiftly fled, never to be heard of again. His father was a well-known frontier doctor and surgeon in Burma, himself the son of third-generation missionaries in Burma. But there was more. Before hiking the final mile to the site, I was introduced to the caretaker of the land. Since there were so many people, everyone was in close proximity to one another. Once the cameras stopped, Henry continued taking us through his files, highlighting important photos and newspaper clippings, including one very poignant photo of himself as a young man standing alongside his deceased father. I thought. Ultimately, Valmores gave up forty of the lesser site maps that he had in his possession, in order to save his life. I had delivered Discovered Science a sensational story, one that would feature Klauss network premier. I was particularly intrigued with a photo Klaus shared of a cement doorway that he had arrived at in one of his tunnel complexes, and was anxious to inspect it in person. Web. Pi $@Z%">Nq. There was no blood or any sign of struggle. Such a thing is well proven to be one way that intelligence agencies move funds around. While there, he learned that the village had been a former Japanese military base, and that the locals believed it was ripe with buried Japanese treasure. The incredibly ambitious, albeit cruel, initiative was overseen by Japanese princes, most notably Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu, the brother of Emperor Hirohito. In 1942 Prince Chichibu is said to have examined potential treasure-vault sites around greater Manila, and further afield. We stopped on the outskirts of town in front of an old schoolhouse. Dont get me wrong. Thank you for your sacrifice, I mumbled awkwardly. I was frustrated. Hours later, on the plane back to London, my brain was in overdrive. Darrell is best known among the media for his TV show entitled "Cooper's Treasure", broadcast on Discovery . After a long morning of work, Bob and Billy decided to take an afternoon nap. 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