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Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold

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In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This ‘Black Gold’ gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America’s allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years.

365 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2003

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About the author

Sterling Seagrave

39 books48 followers
Seagrave was an American writer, investigative journalist, and historian, his particular focus being topics of the far east.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Raza.
35 reviews1 follower
July 23, 2023
So, consider Japan. Hungry for territory, run by Emp Hirohito & his cabal of militarists, starts acquiring land (Korea, manchuria, china & south east asia). During all this, they loot banks, private vaults & estates that includes gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, gems & art. All this is taken back to JAPAN via Philippines. The underground tunnels where this treasure is stored becomes known as Golden Lily sites in Philippines.

USA, when it enters WW2, conquers Philippines before moving onto Japan. It learns of these sites and starts looting them to take all this gold back to USA. The US establishment decides to setup a Black Eagle Trust from this wealth, which will provide funds to allies for Cold War battles. In Japan, this fund becomes the M-Fund eventually being run the liberal Japanese political party, the LDP.

Santy Romana, who had tracked all this gold (which could be tortured out of General Yamashit's driver) for USA( read: CIA) in WW2 in the Philippines, becomes the man-in-front of all the accounts in all the banks all over the world. On the other hand,President Marcos, USA's man in Philippines for decades, hunts all over his country for the hidden treasure. Santy dies, and his accounts are taken over by the greedy banks or ex-CIA Gen. Landsale (Santy's partner in torture+treasure hunt) with implicit acknowledgment of USA. Marcos, deposed in the 80s, eventually flees to Hawaii, & loses all his stolen treasure as well.

A special mention to Robert Curtis, who for personal fame and money, helped track some hidden gold for Marcos but had to flee when he learnt the president meant to execute him after the find. Another mention of Ben the filipino, who was the man boy of the Japanese Prince Takeda, the man hiding treasure all over Philippines for the Emperor. Hirihito & the the Japanese conglomerates who had used slave labor in their companies during the war faced no serious consequences afterwards. USA needed all allies for its Cold War.

Finally, the last chapters details the early days of OSS & CIA hands, esp Wild Bill Donavon, whose backers included rich American families. With him in the middle, there was a nexus between American & Italian & Chinese Mafia, corrupt governments & CIA front companies. Drug money from asian underworld ended up in CIA front banks & companies, sometimes in the same banks where Japanese stolen treasure had been stashed.

Even if all the claims made in this book cannot be verified, rest assured its a must read. Its a scathing indictment of greedy modern banking, of the rulers of america and japan and phillipines , of the justice to WW2 victims that still eludes them.

Here's to hope and a salute to the journalists who share these stories.
Profile Image for Terry.
618 reviews17 followers
January 24, 2018
I became interested in the topic of Philippine treasure hunting after reading Cryptonomicon. This book, Gold Warriors, is an exhaustively researched account of how Japan sequestered gold and treasure during the first half of the 20th century on behalf of the unbelievably greedy and bloodthirsty Japanese emperor Hirohito and his band of generals and crime bosses. This acquisition continued as Japan conquered their region in WWII but then they began hiding it in Philippine tunnels and sea wrecks as defeat loomed. The US conquering force became aware of this plunder and had a problem with what to do with it. Much of this plunder was bullion so the book details how this was gold was sanctified and reinjected into world banking systems via Macao, the Bahamas, and Switzerland. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos go to incredible lengths to cash in on this booty. Why would a family with millions want billions and billions? That's why I'll never be monetarily rich.

The book describes how governments become involved in the horde by issuing gold certificates and then declaring them counterfeit. The gold is used to fight the era's consummate problem - communism. It buys political favors and weapon systems. Legal battles in Hawaii shed some light but people die normally and mysteriously. No surprise - we see money and power go hand in hand in corruption.

I find the topic intriguing but the writing leaves much to be desired. The chapters read more like individual research projects with too many characters than a consistent, readable story. The book would also benefit from an update since more than a decade has passed. I wasn't troubled by the authors selling a CD with supplemental support.

What percentage of the Japanese plunder was NOT gold, and where is this jewelry and other artwork? What efforts have the Japanese and Philipinos made similar to that described on the US part? How did this huge amount of gold play into leaving the gold standard and how much went to Fort Knox? What treasure hunting is being done today both on the ground/water and in the courts? This is a sad and interesting part of history.
257 reviews
December 27, 2018
It’s a conspiracy!

I suppose there’s some truth to the story. But...the story and suggestions of conspiracy at every turn are very tiring...also, citing Oliver Stone as a pseudo credible source...I expected more- honestly the sources were vague and “National Enquirer-esque “ all in all, an interesting theory, but to be taken with a grain of salt.
Profile Image for Craig Earnshaw.
429 reviews10 followers
December 28, 2017
We all know about the Nuremberg trials. The Japanese were many times worse in their treatment of their enemies and yet, no Kyoto trials. Why? This book will astound and anger you.
Profile Image for IX Musas.
10 reviews1 follower
March 23, 2025
This book is incredibly fascinating, especially as someone from the Philippines. The information it presented was entirely new to me—I had never heard or read about these topics before. While it was a lot to take in, I did some additional research just to verify its accuracy, and it led me down quite the rabbit hole! As the saying goes, "The more you seek, the more things will make sense." It's packed with information, and for anyone interested in exploring the legend of "Yamashita's gold," it offers valuable insights.
37 reviews1 follower
September 22, 2011
Just started this book. I found out about it from a podcast I listen to called "Black Op Radio." The host, Len Osanic, interviewed Sterling Seagraves (the author) and I found it to be a very fascinating story. I had to buy the book. I do think it will be interesting. I have so far just read the intro, which just rehashes most of what I heard in the interview. Why this author was interviewed on this show is because of a connection with one of the main characters in his story with the assassination of JFK. Black Op Radio is mostly a JFK investigatory show. Len Osanic interviews JFK researchers and I find these interviews quite interesting. General Ed Lansdale is a name you will come across when studying the JFK assassination and Lansdale apparently is also involved in this book "Gold Warrior's" which is about America recovering a vast amount of gold from Japan. I encouarge anyone to listen to the interview at www.blackopradio.com episodes #512a and 512b and see if you too are not interested in this story. It is well researched and has lots of documentation to back it up. Will update you further as I go.

Finished this one awhile ago but failed to update my information on it. It is ashame that the additional information isn't available for a reasonable price. He advertises in the book that he has more info on cds which has maps, pictures and other items that corroborate his story, but the problem is that it is a bit pricey. I would like to have the cd but don't want to spend that much on it. I think the story just solidifies my assessment that no matter what government there is in the world it is always going to be corrupt at some level. I believe the Lord Acton quote is appropriate, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I do recommend it though it is a tough read for the most part but parts of it are extremely interesting and I could see someone making a movie on parts of the story.
Profile Image for Mercurybard.
467 reviews5 followers
May 6, 2017
The implications of the information revealed in this book are *terrifying*, especially in light of the recent banking crisis.

The opening makes this seem like a conspiracy theory, but the last fifth of the book is anotations and citations and the authors offer to ship you a CD of scanned primary documents and interviews for free if you want to investigate more.

The premise--that during World War II, the Japanese looted trillions of dollars in gold, gems, and other precious artifacts from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia and then hid them in secret, booby-trapped locations around the Philippines--is fascinating.

Definitely going to have to look for Seagrave's book on the Yamato dynasty.
Profile Image for Mike.
805 reviews26 followers
April 16, 2024
It is a very compelling story about the misuse of war booty on a global scale. The book focuses primarily on the theft of national treasures throughout Asia hiding the treasures in vaults throughout the Philippines, then the use of that treasure by the WWII allies, the resurrected Japanese nation, and the Marcos regime. The book also provides information on the storage of Nazi gold in Swiss vaults.
Profile Image for Nowick.
Author 48 books21 followers
June 8, 2019
History in a nutshell:
1. Ancient miners dig, smelt gold to bullion, buddhas.
2. Life goes on… rich get greedier.
3. Japanese invade to steal, then rebury gold and gems in hills.
Of course, that's only the beginning of the story... a masterpiece of investigative journalism, writing history where there was none, or a mere pastiche of fake news.
Profile Image for Shoe.
38 reviews1 follower
December 15, 2022
Was expecting something a little crank, a little hyperbolic, but this seems pretty sober and measured. Just did the audiobook, so I wasn't checking up on footnotes and sources, but it has the impression of being well-sourced. Worth a read, certainly.
Profile Image for Tommy.
338 reviews40 followers
April 23, 2020
A lot of this just isn't or can't be sufficiently verified and there's some outright dumb claims in here. All the goldbug tinfoil hattery detracts from the otherwise more valuable information... the interesting first fact is that a lot of people in the American government and intelligence agencies sure believed in a lot of this.

Records of the loot. Of course, the Japanese records have vanished as is reported by the Interagency task force charged with the review of records under the Japanese Imperial Disclosure Act, Interim Report, reproduced in full on our CDs. This of course fails to take into consideration documents that never reached Washington like those given to Herbert Hoover. General Bonner Fellers, MacArthur’s assistant in Tokyo wrote on June 23, 1967 that “[Herbert] Hoover had no trouble in securing …a tremendous amount of documentation from the Japanese War Office… He sent back an enormous number of documents from Japan.” These too have disappeared.

A lot of documents may exist if you're willing to really look around in more locations.

An interesting claim not sufficiently dug into:
One deal said to have resulted is the so-called China Mandate. Our Marcos family source insists that in 1972 President Nixon and Henry Kissinger made a secret deal with Premier Chou En-lai to keep China out of conflict with the United States over Taiwan, in return for access to a large quantity of gold provided by Marcos. We have not been able to confirm the political details. However, bank documents that have surfaced over the years clearly demonstrate that large quantities of gold bullion were moved into Chinese mainland banks during this period, including bullion accounts in the names of Santa Romana, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and other members of their family and circle of rich cronies. Since all these people were loudly anti-communist, there is no plausible reason for them to transfer gold bullion to Chinese banks in the midst of the Cold War. For that reason alone, the story may well be true.
According to this source, in 1971-1972 the economy of the People’s Republic was in very bad shape, its foreign currency reserves were flat, aggravated by the worldwide oil crisis and famine in the countryside, all of which is correct. As pressure mounted on the Politburo, party hawks gained a stronger voice, pushing for invasion of Taiwan to gain control of its assets, and as a much-needed distraction. CIA and Pentagon analysts concluded that Beijing was about to invade, while America had its hands full in Vietnam. This could lead to nuclear war. A way had to be found to defuse the situation, and a novel solution proposed by a CIA analyst was to help Beijing stabilize its economy with a huge infusion of black gold from Marcos, reducing the pressure for war. If America helped China out of this domestic crisis, it could bring a period of peace that would benefit the Philippines as well.
As our source tells it, Nixon and Kissinger secretly offered Beijing $68-billion in gold (an amount they knew Marcos had), to be moved into PRC banks in a number of tranches over several years. This would not be an outright gift. It would be deposited incrementally in various PRC banks in Hong Kong and major cities inside China. There the bullion would remain as an asset base, earmarked for various purposes negotiated in advance. The Chinese banks would be strengthened, the PRC economy would be stabilized, moderates in the Politburo would regain their leverage, and hawks pushing for an invasion of Taiwan would be silenced. No U.S. funds were involved.
8 reviews
January 4, 2020
Important aspect revealed in this book : wallstreet fraud by CITIBANK CEO JOHN REED. A CRIME THAT SHLD EASILY GET THIS P U NK REED THE D E A TH RO W.

Besides fraud by Vatican, Politicians of U.S.A and Japan in the 80s, there is also a mention here about Citicorp CEO/kriminal John reed and his hiest of $20 billlion worTh of gold SOMETIME MID 1980S.

thIs Gold Mr. John Reed robbed from a citi client of Manila, philipines- Mr santos.

Santos is President Marcos' agent. Later his widow tried her best to get the gold back with lawyers in citi board room having a rough battle. Reed somehow muzzled the laywers was partying in beaches with hoes and other shameless bankers form india Ashoke dutt rana talar. they evne managed to dupe Harvard(not tought if u got moeny)
a project these bnkaers as leaders. heard about 'success tranfer' article in HBR?
. a pimp.

Later when citicorp/citibank went bankrupt was asked to liquidate, Reed used a pedophile prince Alwaleedh (now under house arrest) as a proxy investor to revive citicorp sometime in 1989, when this bank was about to be shut down by senate committee. Accordinly Prince invested about $200 million in citicorp shares at $10/shares to recapitalise the bank as a so called 'white knight' or literally desert rat or whatever.

This is according to me a very crucial movement tha has defined the modern day world of Globalisation, ewaste being the collateral damage, counterfiet products, rat race. GDP targets. greed.
S0 Reed about Read as given in ths book first.

In other words those wallstreeet guys are murderers not bankers. The gold is fomr china/philippines or wherever Yamashit the generla looted during the 40s.
Those miners and their fmailies today are probably working as Salves for apple inc( foxconn etc)
in china, taiwan, bangladehs, BHIAR, UP (india) and many such places in Asia. Whuilese these murderers are projected as economist, bankers, hedge fund mathematicians.


Apppoitment of obama, clinotn etc all has to do with this loot by John reed and his lawyers.
Author must be given noble prize and these bankers deserves d E aT H R O w

---citigroup/citicorp story-

Sandy weill, his wife , co-ceo of citi john reed and their indian criminals ( ashoke dutt, rana talwar, jerry rao, aditya puri, ) should be shot D E A D d e a d. these lunacitcs are modern day bugsy seigle, JFK etc.

mobsters. women, drugs, money. these liars must be exposed. all books/research rprts by investigaotrs -golf hiest - have revealed the truth. time to finish them off.
there are over 30 million homeless people. seee latest news lattimes dot com.

silicon valley employees of so caled FANNG stocks (microsoft, google, fb etC)
are living in trailer, sleeing in their cars, walmart parking lots etc.
These babrbairans are the cause. GDP target? we must k ill these illeterate bstrds. and of theori hoes of wallstreet used as hkrs in nevada etc.
for our entertianment after a good job of taking down the mob bosses.

Profile Image for Arthur O..
11 reviews1 follower
December 19, 2022
If you want a history book that reads like a great mystery book or a spy thriller…if you have ever wondered why many Asian countries, especially China, have such great antipathy towards Japan, even to this day, this is the book for you. Meticulously researched by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, Gold Warriors takes the reader from the open barbarism of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and into the innermost sanctums of the Japanese ruling elite. Far from being the work of rogue soldiers, the plundering of Asian treasures was orchestrated from the very top of the Japanese government. From east and Southeast Asia the authors take us to the Philippines, where much of the ill gotten loot was hidden. The casual cruelty and barbaric disregard of human life documented here will send chills down your spine. Surely there must be a curse upon the treasure. Nobody knows exactly how much has been recovered; the amount of money laundering and the duplicity boggles the mind. No spoilers but the authors make a very good case for the loot financing United States government black ops even to this day. Even the youngest people alive during the Second World War will soon be dead. Their spirits cry out for justice. Will anyone listen?
1 review
March 21, 2021
If this book was recommended by NPR well that means something. Something bad. And JFK is aka Jimmy Carter for anyone's information. Knowing this truth will steer you clear of a life time of fake rabbit holes. HWB was JFK's younger brother Joe Kennedy Jr. who faked his death in 1944. Satan is the god of this world and everything you think is real, is not. Now listen up. The world is under their spell until a immortal starts cracking some heads behind the scenes. This is how it works. And Very Soon, like less than a decade soon. I AM no joke.
3,197 reviews21 followers
May 10, 2023
Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, who captured the Malay Peninsula and Singapore would have been an interesting protagonist in a WWII setting. This book is boring conspiracy theory. Kristi & Abby Tabby
Profile Image for Bernie.
468 reviews18 followers
July 4, 2020
3.5 stars Fascinating, in-depth, but meanders a bit. Very well documented and researched, I plan to read two other books of theirs (Yamato Dynasty and Marcos), so we'll see how that goes.
117 reviews2 followers
May 27, 2021
Lots of chapters are repetitive, this can be trimmed and told sequentially instead of jumping around
Profile Image for Bryan.
134 reviews1 follower
July 3, 2021
required reading, good story, terrible narrator,
9 reviews2 followers
February 12, 2025
Interesting content but can read like a list of events or numbers and weights.
116 reviews13 followers
December 13, 2008
While full of references and footnotes and the authors have clearly done a great deal of research the style of the book weaves an elaborate web of conspiracy that makes me very reluctant to buy the whole story.

The book depends on the kinds of guilt-by-association and pointing out of coincidences that should always only point a historian to issues that need to be confirmed with further research, rather than form the key hinges in a complex accusation. If you are interested in Japanese and East Asian history of the period, however, the book at least brings up personages, events, and potentially damning connections that can send you to other sources or if you are a historian, spark interest in new topics.
Profile Image for Michael Connolly.
233 reviews43 followers
April 14, 2012
Fascinating tale of Japanese war crimes. According to the Seagraves, the Japanese looted a great deal of gold from Asia, then buried it in the Philippines, where Ferdinand Marcos later used it to make himself rich and powerful. The United States also persuaded the Japanese to give us much of the gold that they stole, and we then used it to finance our Cold War operations. In return, we agreed not to prosecute the majority of Japanese war crimes. It is difficult to know how much of the Seagrave's story is true. From a general understanding of human nature, it would be difficult not to believe that the Japanese looted Asia. It is certainly puzzling that the United States allowed the Japanese to walk away from most of their war crimes.
Profile Image for Stephanie .
1,198 reviews51 followers
November 12, 2008
My carpool partner told me about hearing this tale on NPR and it was fascinating, so I tracked down the book. What a scary story, about the huge treasure fund that has been used for decades to fund covert operations worldwide since the end of WW2.

Sadly, NOTHING surprises me anymore, and I do tend to be seduced by what some call "conspiracy theories" -- but just because they are thusly labeled does not mean they are untrue.

And again I would not put anything past our very own axis of evil, AKA Bush-Cheney.
Profile Image for Manheim Wagner.
Author 4 books6 followers
April 16, 2013
An indispensable book, "Gold Warriors" lays out a very sound argument on how the world of black finance works and in turn provides strong evidence of how this black finance was acquired. The Seagraves have done a marvelous job weaving the story together, which involves the insane greed of the Japanese Imperial Family,the Yakuza, the Marcos Family, the Vatican, the American banking elite and both the O.S.S. and C.I.A. Simply put, this book along with Paul Manning's "Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile" are a must for understanding the global mess we all are living in.
Profile Image for Ddraig.
115 reviews1 follower
October 17, 2016
this is one of the most mind-boggling books I've ever read. The authors claim to be able to document everything in the book (but want $45 for 3 CDs worth of evidence, boo), and in the book describe how Japan essentially looted trillions (yes trillions)(*) of dollars in gold and gems from all of occupied asia, and then stashed it in Japan to begin with, and later in Indonesia and the Phillipines as the war started to not quite go according to plan.

If this is true, it's really astounding. Worth a read. Pack salt.

I read the kindle version. Hey, it was cheap.
Profile Image for Rhonda Browning.
Author 3 books13 followers
March 1, 2010
Interesting stuff! What a corrupt world in which we live. Quite the history lesson in these pages.
Profile Image for Liz Waters.
Author 1 book10 followers
March 3, 2013
Like all conspiracy books, this one must be taken with a grain of salt.
Profile Image for Quang Nguyen.
3 reviews2 followers
July 27, 2014
The scariest thing about this book is that it exposes dirty secrets of WWII Japanese gold looting with an incredible amount of backup materials and intelligent deduction.
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