Forbidden History - Buried Gold: The Hunt for Yamashita’s Treasure | Part 2

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

In the second instalment of this two-part episode, we continue to follow expert treasure hunters in their search of ‘Yamashita’s treasure’. Legend has it that Japanese soldiers buried this vast collection of stolen relics and gold in the jungle in Southeast Asia at the end of WWII… will the treasure hunters find the hoard of valuables they’re looking for? Cast List: Klint Janulis: Archaeologist & Former Special Forces Operative Klaus Dona: Historian & Explorer Andrew Gough: Writer, presenter and editor of The Heretic Magazine Tony McMahon: Former BBC news producer, author, print journalist and historian  Dr. Karen Bellinger: Anthropologist, archaeologist, and historian  Lynn Picknett: Historian and researcher specialising in exposing historical conspiracies. She is also the co-author of several notable works Richard Felix: A historian and lecturer specialising in local and paranormal history Guy Walters: A British author, historian, and journalist who has written several books on WWII. As a journalist for The Times, he writes on historical topics for the national press. Ricardo Trota Jose: Professor at University of Philippines Patrick Nicholas: Researcher & Explorer Eric Meyers: Narrator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. This program is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It contains mature adult themes. Listener discretion is advised. It's one of the world's great mysteries, the legend of the lost Japanese treasure. It's said to be a vast quantity of gold, relics, and other valuable objects that were stolen during World War II. At the same time, the Japanese forces were looting.

Southeast Asia, their Axis partners, the Nazis, systematically plundered Europe. They hoarded large amounts of relics, artwork, and gold bars. It eventually took a team of allied military investigators called the Monuments Men to find and recover the stolen goods. But while much of the Nazi plunder has been found, the alleged Japanese treasure is still missing, said to be buried underneath the Philippine Islands. So is the legendary Japanese fortune still there after all these years? Or is it all a great story and nothing more? Many treasure hunters have descended on the islands to try and find it, but so far, without

much success. This treasure would make you wealthy beyond your dreams back home. What would you do? And we actually have a number of examples of of Allied soldiers, finding plundered, treasure, and loot throughout both the Pacific and Europe, bringing it home with them. So it's not implausible that some of these tunnels were found, and we've got some folks running around either England or in America, very wealthy today, nobody knows why or how.

Klaus Dona is an Austrian researcher who has dedicated the past few years of his life to finding the Japanese gold. Four years ago, he seemed to disappear. For a time, no one could find him. Then, only a few of his closest friends and family were told about where he had gone. The Philippines. I know some people who really found some treasures, some gold bars, a small jar with some diamonds, and I was shocked.

The Japanese allegedly hid their treasure hoard. in places they'd remember. So mountains, military bases, schools, hospitals, places that will be around in 50 years, or at least there'll be a geographic memory of them. What's interesting is they created three levels of maps. Here's a map of all the sites where we've deposited treasure. Here's a map of the site that has symbols in the landscape, And then there's the engineering map, the third map, that tells you about the tunnel. It goes 40 meters this way, then it goes down, then it goes left, etc. Those are all gone now.

Klaus claims that he was given all sorts of important information by people who knew what was hidden and where the Japanese put their treasure. The interesting thing about Klaus are his methods. There are a combination of many different disciplines. He uses maps, he researches as areas that are more likely than not to have been places where the Japanese could have hidden things. He also interviews people, talks to the elders to understand, you know, have you seen something? Can I find an eyewitness?

I met also another eyewitness. When he was 16 years old, he was working for his father on the field and then some Japanese Japanese soldiers came, they just took all the corn on the floor and they loaded heavy boxes on that small cart and they forced the young guy to bring those pieces up to one of the places where we are now working. And he saw how they brought the heavy boxes up to the small hill. That's exactly the place where we were digging. Plaus, you've told me before that these sites can't be discovered by just anyone.

They're spiritually protected. What do you mean by that? Can you give me some examples? We have a lot of examples, but for this place, Juby can prove that Japanese, they saw Japanese soldiers ghost, marching up here with combat boots and helmets and everything. Marching up here? Marching up here. Did you see that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. In the night? Yeah, in the night. Even the day. Even on the day. Yeah, some children are playing around. They saw the Japanese.

How can you explain that? I mean, nobody would believe you anyway. There's also stories of a little bit of heronormal, where some of the elders and some of the locals see a marching Japanese army that isn't in the world. army that isn't there. In the actual excavation site, in the tunnels, he's starting to see symbols. He found this huge heart with an artery in the middle of the tunnel. Keep in mind, the tunnel is closed. You have to break it with a chisel. And what fell out was this huge heart, a known Japanese symbol.

That means you're going to love what's below. Klaus isn't short of determination and enthusiasm, and nobody can take that away. from him and he's used techniques like dowsing to try and find the treasure to warn of the booby traps, he's dug his own tunnels, he's identified what he believes are markers in the countryside that indicate where those tunnels are. But are these markers real? In the village where Klaus is digging, the Japanese come repeatedly asking about a particular tree. I've seen that tree.

Of course everyone says, no, I don't know what you're talking about. There's no such tree, not here. So there's a memory or some copies of these maps that have trees that aren't indigenous, stones that are carved to look a certain way. And this gets into the realm of, are you seeing things or are these really markers? I think if we had the original maps

that had the location of where these symbols are, then it would be a lot more believable. As Klaus and his team burrow further into the ground, their journey will become even more perilous. That's one of the most dangerous types of digging or excavating you can do. And this can kill within minutes. Skeptics will say, well, no treasure has ever been found, so there is none. But, you know, think about human nature.

It's more than likely that there have been treasure hunters out there looking for all this loot. And if they've found it, why would they go public? Isn't it more likely they just keep it privately to themselves? privately to themselves. Austrian researcher Klaus Dana has spent the last four years digging down into the Philippines, looking for the Japanese treasure. He believes he's close and that he will unearth a great find. There are many factors that lead Klaus to be so resolute that he has found a Japanese treasure site.

For instance, he's working on a former Japanese military base. He's working at a site where the elders have to be a site where the elders have to told them that not only have they seen Japanese coming and burying big, happy boxes, but that Marcos, the then president, visited and said, this is the site that I want to excavate next. Klaus Dana is taking perhaps a different approach from some treasure hunters. He's using the ancient technique of dowsing. Now, dowsing is something which has absolutely zero. credibility in terms of scientific proof, but there is a great deal of belief in its power as an intuitive approach where one holds a stick of some kind, walks around over a very carefully considered location that's been chosen for very specific reasons,

and hence you might find what you're looking for when you do your research, whether you do it by dowsing or just opening your eyes. You can use dowsing to find, for example, remains in archaeological digs. And most archaeologists would die rather than admit that they employ a dowser, but they have over the years. You have map dowsers who actually have a map and they hold a pendulum or dowsing rolled over it and they locate what they're looking for on a map, which sounds impossible, which sounds ridiculous. But actually, most times, it would be able to be.

times it works. Dowsing can work for whatever you're thinking about. You could find Grandma's lost wedding ring in the back garden if you wander along with a pair of bent coat hangers thinking Granny's lost wedding ring. It's real. That's why when people think water, oil, Uri Geller earned his millions by dousing for oil in Texas. I started and I found out. where the rooms are and where there might be rooms and then I started asking also if I could find some cyanide or if I can find some dangerous sites and it was getting

better and better and better I must admit I was skeptical about dousing for things other than water you know how are you gonna ask yes no questions who is responding how can you trust that but I have seen them now over a course of two or three years, and he succeeds every time. I mean, this is ancient technology taking to a whole new level. I've learned of the fact that five or six people die every week in the Philippines from cyanide. I've gone to the Philippines to treasure sites and had people show me it's over there beneath the waterfall.

I went in there and I felt my foot burning and look at my foot now. I have no toes. I'm missing fingers on my hand because I've gone in too close to the cyanide and it was released. So it's spectacular and unbelievable as it sounds to think that there's cyanide just beyond the walls that Klaus is traversing. I actually think it's true because I've seen the firsthand evidence of people who have lost limbs from the cyanide and are lucky to be alive. So to get around that, he dowses in each site twice a day to make sure that is it safe to go

forward? No, it's not. Is it safe to go left? No, it's not. Is it safe to go right? Okay, it's safe to go right. Here we go, guys. You go there, I'll go check the other sites.

So that's how he does it. There's an immense amount of danger. The treasure hunters are supposed to go and get a license, a permit to operate, so they're supposed to specify where they're digging. But in reality, you know, if you're a treasure hunter in the Philippines, you're probably going to go looking for this treasure if you find any, well, you're going to keep it a secret to yourself. Austrian explorer Klaus Dana has spent over four years digging his way down into the Philippines.

He says he's following very detailed information given to him by the local. He's burrowed into previously existing tunnels, 200 feet below ground, using a pneumatic drill. He believes he's close. I'm quite sure on our four places now we are very, very close because first was the white ceramic. The next layer had some leaves in front, gold dust and diamond dust, and we have a bit of a bit of echo on each of the places in front and sometimes also on the side that means the entrance and then the room going around the corner the chamber the incredible thing is that Klaus didn't just open a hatch and find the open tunnels he

found the site and identified where the tunnels used to be so they're filled with cement the Japanese created the tunnels put something at the end of them then sealed it with cement. And that's what he's digging through, a few inches every day. Klaus is excavating vertically. He's digging tunnels straight down. And that's one of the most dangerous types

of digging or excavating you can do. In this area, particularly with the volcanic activity, you get instabilities within the rocks, but you also get gases coming out from the volcanic activities such as sulfur. And this can kill within minutes. I'm really not a squeamish guy. I'm not clusterful.

I've crawled through mastabas and pyramids all over the world, no problem. But these tunnels are different. You're taking your life into your own hand as you descend down. The ladder is completely vertical and made of bamboo. So the steps where you put your feet, you get about that much of your foot secured, and it's completely wet. I distinctly remember, what am I doing?

I could die. I could fall. It takes all of your focus and all of your attention to just get down to the point where now you have to walk on your hands and knees. You know, it's not every day you just send down into a tunnel shaft, laced cyanide. That's very painful and you think, okay, fine, I'm crawling to some place that is going to lead to a reveal. No, it's going to lead to another bamboo staircase that's going to go down another 60 feet. It couldn't be any more inhospitable. And the workers know what I'm like. They know that there's cobras all around and I don't like snakes. And there were snakes in the tunnel. When you finally

get down there and realize this is where they're working every single day, knocking with a hammer and chisel a few inches off, hauling it back up, it's the most incredible feat. The really interesting thing is you finally reached the He hasn't gone any further. You're at the very end of where he has gotten to. And you would think, all I want to do is sit here, explore, contemplate. No, you want to get the hell out of there because you fear, not that it's going to collapse on you, but you can't imagine how it feels to be that deep in such a tiny space. You just want to leave.

This is not easy. This is not... Oh, no. Health and safety walk in the park. It's damn dangerous, but the reward is going to be huge. Hopefully that we find a lot of ancient architects and hopefully also gold, because with that we can help again other people so give and take. Okay for the other excavations?

And continue, of course. But some locals are skeptical that anything is left to be found. Whatever valuables were in the banks at that time, they were systematically looted. The legend of the Japanese gold is very much alive in the Philippines.

It's said to be made up primarily of large amounts of gold bars, and it's said to be worth billions. There are unconfirmed reports that the Japanese army buried this treasure in several underground sites, which

they then booby-trapped to kill anyone who dared to break in. The massive treasure has supposedly never been discovered, although gold and valuables have reportedly been found in the Philippines before. If the Japanese had brought treasure from all their occupied territories into the Philippines, as many people have suggested over the years, then the value of this would have been incalculable. The tunnels of Japanese used to bury the gold and the treasure and whatever else they had, a lot of those were pre-existing.

Now, Klaus's is over 200 feet deep in four different sites. It appears, though, those are tunnels that were constructed purposely by the Japanese because it was on their military base near the ocean, near harbor where a ship could come up and they could unload. So there may have been some smugglers, tunnels that gave them a head start, but it does appear deep tunnels were man-made and filled up by the Japanese. But despite their belief that they are on the hunt for and very near to find the so-called lost Japanese treasure, not everyone believes that it's there. Tunneling is really advantageous to the Japanese as a form of defense, and we see that in

Vietnam 20, 30 years later. So actually, tunnels are essential for Japanese defense. They're essential for hoarding far more useful things, such as food, ammunition and other sorts of supplies. You know, actually, booty and plunder and bars of gold are pretty far down the list. And actually, you're probably not going to store them in a place your enemy's going to try and attack. You're going to probably want to store them in the safest place possible, and that's back home. Now, for me, as somebody who understands the logistics of military operations, this doesn't hold a lot of water. The reason is, imagine all the logistics the Japanese needed to get those goods up the

mountain. You would have needed a similar, if not greater logistical trail or chain to do the same thing getting it down the mountain and out into the system. Now, soldiers talk, and the rumor mill among soldiers runs rampant. And the fact that there have not been any real credible reports from soldiers or Filipinos who said, I actually carried some of this plunder, this treasure, down from the cave or from the mountain, tells me that it seems unlikely they would have been able to pull off an operation like that

with such secrecy that there's absolutely no evidence of it. It's often said that the Japanese may have dynamited, even booby-trapped their own tunnels. There's even one story that General Yamashita himself even blew up on the tunnels, knowing that there were a number of his own soldiers inside and he entombed them deliberately. Conversely, if we look at the way the Americans conducted their warfare in the region at that time, they could have easily dynamited those tunnels as well.

They would have believed that there were Japanese soldiers in a network of tunnels waiting to spring out. Why would they bother to engage them underground? Wouldn't it be better to just dynamite them and enclose them there and move on? The Japanese Imperial Army seemed to have believed that they could hide this vast hoard, so-called golden lily horde, in tunnels dug deep into the hills as they retreated. But not all Filipinos are convinced that the treasure is real. Dr. Ricardo Jose is an expert on the history of the Philippines. He does not believe that there is any gold or treasure buried on the island and does not believe that Klaus will discover anything. I don't see the logic of burying treasure in the Philippines, particularly in 1944, because first the guerrillas were all over the place.

The guerrillas were watching. They had eyes and ears everywhere. They would have known what was going on. They would have reported this. And then secondly, the Japanese could have used other areas to ship the gold or the other treasures through. They could have used Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, which were theirs anyway. He believes that the treasure was looted by the Japanese army, but that the gold and bullion had already been taken out of the Philippines by the Americans. Some of the treasures looted from Philippine banks, maybe gold bullion, was taken by the Japanese in these trucks.

It was taken out in February, in 1942, when the Americans felt that, eventually the fortress of Correheado would fall. So they made it an emergency plan to take all the Philippine gold out of the Philippines. What we do know is also in December of 1944, the Japanese would begin systematically looking at each bank and signing receipts for whatever valuables were in each of the banks. After the war, in fact, the bankers would say the Japanese took this from us. And this would involve paper money from before the war. involved coins that had been put in safety deposit boxes. Whatever valuables were in the banks

at that time, they were systematically looted. But modern-day treasure hunters aren't deterred by this harsh reality. They firmly believe there are still priceless valuables to be found. If you're a treasure hunter today, do you think, hey, I'm going to go by the book and get a permit and find the treasure? No, you don't, because you know you're putting up a signal to the government that you've got a treasure site and they'll probably kill you like they killed Roger Rojas. So nobody asked for a permit and plus they don't want to give away 30% of what they find to the government. And that's why you don't hear about discoveries because it's all on the lowdown. There's places in Manila that will melt down gold and put it into a modern standard.

That's what's going on. Treasure has been found in the Philippines and no doubt treasure will be found again. treasure will be found again in the Philippines. Is it going to be proof of the Yamashita's gold mystery? I need some real proof and I haven't seen any so far that it is real. The thing about the Philippines is it's long been treasure central. Way before Yamashita, you had rumors of American bullion being located in the region, but even more attractive, the Spanish rule of the Philippines for 400 years.

Think of all those galleons loaded with silver and gold. gold coming from the new world that were shipwrecked and some of these shipwrecks undoubtedly exist. So the Philippines has always been a magnet for those looking for treasure. At their undisclosed excavation site in the Philippines, Klaus and Andrew go underground. They have dug two tunnels at this site, but due to excessive rainfall, only one of them is stable enough to enter. Three to four weeks ago, we had three weeks continuing heavy rain. One typhoon, one monsoon hit us, and we had a big problem in the tunnels because it was too much water.

Researcher and writer Andrew Goff is a self-confessed mystery enthusiast. He has investigated all manner of stories and has spent years researching the legend of the Japanese gold. The thing about Klaus's work is that you would think after three years he would have found it. But the fact is, the reality is, these chambers are incredibly deep. And that's why nobody has found them. They're from a historical record of people around the time when the first chambers were excavated. Indicate that they're about 220 to 230 feet deep. Now Klaus is just about there.

He's probably within 10 or 15 feet of that level. It's absolutely humbling to be down here and to realize the effort that goes into these inhospitable conditions. I mean, I know there's usually not water in here, but close, this is extreme. Sometimes you are not, you cannot sleep in the night. You wake up, sweating, you think, are you on the right way? is all the time and the money you had to spend for nothing. Do you really find something? On the way down, we always found special markers

that gave us the security that we are really on the right way. For example, we found triangle stones. We found round stone with a hole inside, which means also correct destination. We found insolingles. big parts of incense in the hard material. When you find white cement, that means you are very, very close. And we got already on all four of our sides, white layers.

So that's made me sure that we are now really close. And also we found close to the white. We got some layers with gold dust, we got some layers with diamond. with diamond dust. So that means we are definitely on the right way. I'm astonished at the commitment that an effort like this requires. You couldn't possibly have more arduous conditions. But everything that he says is true.

This is all man-made, artificial. And by all accounts, he's really close. Despite funding difficulties and torrential flooding, Klaus and his team remain dedicated to their mission of finding the lost treasure. The fact that we're on the cusp of success, I'm very excited. If we assume that the Japanese took some of that treasure out

on hospital ships, that the Americans used a big chunk of it to fund covert anti-communist activities in the Cold War, and that the Marcos's got their fingers all over it as well, We have to ask ourselves how much of it is left. Perhaps the most interesting story was that of Roelhojas, the local carpenter who claimed to have discovered a fortune underground, including treasures and vast amounts of gold bullion. He says that the former Philippines leader, Ferdinand Marcos,

sent his henchman to steal what Rojas had found. At a subsequent court case in Hawaii, Roheleo Rojas was awarded billions of dollars in compensation. What Rojas found was fascinating. He found the skeleton remains of a Japanese officer. He found various weapons, samurai swords. He found 24 gold bars and a golden Buddha. The presidential palace under Marcos

is supposed to have had tremendous amounts of gold, including Rojas's gold Buddha. But there was also gold bars put between plaster walls. Everything was laden in gold. It's as though they had come into large amounts of gold and wanted to make sure that everybody knew it. Despite numerous theories about where the valuables might have gone over the over the decades.

Klaus Dona is one of the many treasure hunters who believe it's still buried deep underground. We are on the bunker wall, very, very hard to go through, because as I heard, the bunker walls are between three and five meters thick of this very, very hard demand. We had a big problem in the tunnels because we're filled with water, so we had to do. to buy additional pumps to pump out the water.

All the tunnels are in a good shape, no danger for the people, so we can finally continue. And I'm quite sure we are very, very close to a success. Klaus has expended huge effort in the Philippines and really tapped into that belief that there is treasure underneath the ground in that country. And he's found markers, which he claims that the Japanese put there, locating the tunnels.

He's dug his own tunnels, he's used dousing to try and find this treasure. But, you know, after years of effort and years of determination, and nobody can take that away from Klaus, unfortunately, he's found nothing. Klaus, after years of supporting a long and deep dig, is very low on funds. It's really difficult to get your head around how expensive this operation is. Klaus is a 70-year-old Austrian. He's retired. He's now having to employ over a dozen people. I've stayed with Klaus in his home.

Every night the workers come over, and Klaus' partner feeds them every single night. And when I ask the core members of his team, you think you're about to discover our Japanese treasurer? They say, yes, of course. And I say, what are you going to do when you get your share of all those millions? I'm going to open up a rice farm. It's as though the quest is what keeps them going, not so much the money at the other end.

Patrick Nicholas has worked with Klaus' team for the last four years. He's a former aircraft technician and helps locate the tunnels. There are many times that I've seen him to go through his challenges, and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, I would have quit a long time ago. However, the focus and the devotion that he has to what he's, doing is something that I'd like to really get close to. The fact that we're on the cusp of success, I'm very excited. You know, and I also understand that, you know, the closer we get to success, the more obstacles that we'll have, the more challenges we'll have, but we just have to

stay focused, you know. Klaus is absolutely resolute, not one iota of doubt that he's going to find the treasure. His motto is, we dig it. No worry. It will happen. With all of these treasure hunters and all the labor hours that have gone into digging, tunneling, excavating, what has been found so far? At the very best, maybe we know the geology a little bit better,

but in terms of treasure, not a single thing. Klaus Dana is utterly convinced he's going to find this treasure. Does that mean he will? The harder you try, the more likely you are to succeed at anything, so I say go Klaus. Sometimes these things are all consuming. You know, actually looking for treasure becomes a hobby rather than an end in itself. So, you know, good luck to the man. I'll buy him a drink if he finds 20 million pounds worth of gold, you know, over the next four years.

But in the meantime, you know, he should just enjoy the jungle.