Eleven, the emperor's gold treasure

Although the exact amount of Nazi property that Bowman transferred to Argentina is still unknown, it is undoubtedly the largest Nazi wealth that has not been recovered so far, and the only thing that can be compared with it is the huge treasure plundered by Japan in Asia during World War II. Allies put a lot of energy into recovering the wealth plundered by Nazi Germany, but rarely mentioned the spoils of Japan. The reason is related to the nature of this treasure: most of them take away selfish people, and many victims have been killed by the Japanese army. Robbery in Japan is very different from Nazi Germany. Except Jews, the looting of civilians in Germany is not very serious. The targets of Japanese looting include not only the country, but also individuals (especially overseas Chinese), churches, temples, banks, companies, criminal groups and underground economic groups in the occupied areas. According to the estimation in the late 1940s, Japan's "trophy" in Southeast Asia is as high as tens of billions of dollars, equivalent to thousands or even trillions of dollars today, of which gold alone exceeds 60,000 tons, and there are many priceless treasures such as diamonds, jade, jadeite, precious stones, Buddha statues, calligraphy and painting, ancient books and antiques. Even some American researchers believe that all the wealth plundered by the Japanese army is worth as much as 100 trillion dollars today!

Nazi Germany used to search for European wealth through the special organization "Devisenschutzkommando" (Ministry of Foreign Exchange Protection), and the Japanese military also had the same secret organization named "Jin Baihe". Emperor Hirohito appointed a member of the royal family, Prince Tsuda Palace Guhengde, as the head of the organization in the mainland, and several other royal princes, such as King Hisahiko of Asaka Palace and King Zairen of Youyuan Palace, also participated in this task. The looted property in China includes precious metals, cultural relics, books, copper and nickel coins. , with a total value of 6,543.8 billion to 2 billion US dollars. The wealth was shipped to North Korea and then shipped back to Japan. 1940, Emperor Hirohito's younger brother and his father, Gong Yongren, was appointed as the Southeast Asian director of "Mountain Lily", responsible for transporting the treasures plundered by the Japanese army from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Dutch East India and French India to Japan by fleet. Shortly after the end of the war, Chifu Palace died mysteriously in 1953. His three brothers all lived in the 1990s except Emperor Hirohito (1989), among whom Prince Li Sangong is still alive.

With the increase of submarine activities in the United States after 1942, a large number of Japanese transport ships were sunk at home and in the South China Sea. In order to protect the safety of plundering wealth, Taitai Chifu moved its headquarters from Singapore to Luzon Island in the Philippines on 1943. In the next two and a half years, the Japanese army registered these treasures and buried them in the 172 cellar, tunnel and cave in Luzon Island. At this time, Japan is still imagining a conditional truce with its allies, maintaining its post-war occupation of the Philippines, so that this treasure can be transported back to Japan calmly.

During World War II, Japan also blatantly violated international law and used hospital boats to transfer looted wealth. 1942 10, the Japanese hospital ship "Amano Maru" carried 2,000 tons of gold and a large number of mines from Southeast Asia to Japan (a serious violation of international law) and unloaded the gold at the Yokosuga military port. The ship was secretly sunk by the Japanese navy on August 1945 to destroy the evidence. Another hospital ship, Awa Maru, departed from Mensi Port on February 1945 and arrived in Singapore on March 24, where it was loaded with a large number of rubber, tin, aluminum, rice and military and political personnel retreating from the mainland. The ship set sail on March 28th and returned to Japan. On April 1 day and night, it was sunk by the U.S. Navy submarine "Queen Fish" in the Strait of Taiwan Province Province. According to the records, in addition to strategic materials and non-injured personnel, the ship also contained 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of platinum,15,000 carats of industrial diamonds, 40 boxes of treasures, cultural relics and artworks (some people speculated that the skull fossils of "Beijingers" were among them), and a large number of US dollars, pounds and Hong Kong dollar banknotes.

In addition, Japan also used warships to transport looted goods. 1944165438+1On October 5th, the cruiser "Na Zhi" was sunk by a carrier aircraft of the US Navy near Manila Bay. However, there has always been a saying in Japan that the ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine and the surviving crew was killed by a machine gun on the submarine. Whether this statement is true or not, the Na Zhi did carry gold. In 1970s, Philippine President Marcos fished out a lot of gold from his wreckage. 1997, a Japanese TV crew photographed this batch of gold, including 1800 gold bricks, worth1500,000 US dollars (1997 price).

Some of the "mountain lily" treasures shipped back to Japan are stored in abandoned mines and some are hidden in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. The Japanese military drove away tens of thousands of North Korean laborers and dug a huge underground fortification group there, preparing to move the emperor, the military department and atomic bomb experts there for a last-ditch effort after the US military landed on the mainland. These workers were later killed in secret. However, until 1952, when a peace treaty was concluded with Japan, the main wealth that Japan seized from the war was still hidden in the Philippines.

The first Japanese gold mine discovered after the war was located in Santa Romana, Philippines. When the Japanese army was losing ground in the Philippines, the Philippine guerrillas found that they had transported a large number of heavy boxes to a cave and then sealed the exit with explosives. A major in the strategic service office was with the guerrillas and remembered the location of the treasure. After the war, the agent reopened the cave and found a box full of gold. Between 1945 and 1948, this batch of gold weighing about 2300 tons was shipped to the United States. William donovan, the leader of the Office of Strategic Services, his subordinate lonsdale, MacArthur, the military governor stationed in Japan, and former President herbert hoover, who visited Japan as a special envoy for refugee relief, all participated in this process, and later CIA Director allen dulles also knew about it. Donovan and lonsdale are responsible for handling the gold. Instead of returning them to the victims in Southeast Asian countries, they deposited them in 176 banks in 42 countries, of which 2,000 tons of gold was deposited in the account opened by the Geneva branch of UBS in the name of lonsdale. After the dissolution of the Office of Strategic Services, this huge wealth was accepted by the CIA and became its off-balance sheet funds, which were used for various secret activities without any supervision. The CIA also binds influential and powerful people by issuing gold letters of credit (which can be used to withdraw gold directly from Swiss banks).

Shockingly, some "mountain lily" gold became the private wealth of pro-Japanese Americans, and the largest account was opened in the name of Arthur MacArthur, son of MacArthur, at Credit Suisse Bank in Zurich. Other information shows that Hoover has 7.5 tons of gold in his private account at Credit Suisse. Looking back at the collusion between American politicians and Japan after the war, we can find out where gold came from.

After Japan surrendered, the Allies not only punished the war criminals, but also carried out some post-war reforms, such as abolishing the chaebol, dissolving large enterprises, reforming the monetary system, formulating a new constitution, and making Japan pay war compensation. However, this process was blocked by MacArthur, the governor of the US military stationed in Japan, and his men, as well as Joseph Gru, the former ambassador to Japan, and Hoover, the former president.

Gru was appointed ambassador to Japan in 1932, returned to the United States through the exchange of Japanese and American diplomats in 1943, and served as acting secretary of state in 1945. He was born in the upper class in Boston, his wife is the great-granddaughter of Brigadier General matthew perry, and his mother comes from a famous cabot family. The Gru family has a long history with Asia, and participated in the opium trade with China as bankers in the19th century. Gru began to obstruct Japan's democratization process during the war. He held secret talks with the Japanese ambassador to Switzerland and promised that the United States would not sue Emperor Hirohito and let him keep the throne. This commitment completely violates the claims of Roosevelt and Truman Administration that Japan surrender unconditionally and punish war criminals.

Due to the painful memories left by the Pearl Harbor incident, the death March in Bataan Peninsula, and the abuse of prisoners of war, Hoover and Gru's plan to wash their sins for the Japanese emperor and government had to be kept strictly confidential. At the end of 1945, the US Congress declared Emperor Hirohito a war criminal and prepared to try him. But before the prosecution began, some Japanese witnesses suddenly died of illness or committed suicide in a prison in Tokyo. On their way back to China, American prisoners of war were also forced to write a written statement forbidding them to talk about the abuse they suffered in Japanese prison camps. With MacArthur's intervention, some senior war criminals were exempted from prosecution. For example, Britain decided to drop the lawsuit against a Japanese naval officer who ordered the shooting of 600 British sailors who sank into the water with machine guns. MacArthur also ordered that bacteriological weapons and 73 1 troops should not participate in the trial of war criminals' courts.

Although MacArthur received clear instructions from the Allies to take the emperor to court, he was still unwilling to try him, and even arranged for him to visit the people, trying to dress him up as a peaceful monarch who was close to the people. On MacArthur's list of war criminals, only 300 people were prosecuted, 28 were convicted and only 7 were executed. All the executed officers were army generals from Changzhou, which was a reward for the Japanese royal family. The army dominated by Changzhou people and the navy dominated by Samoans have long been at odds. Because the mother of Empress Yoshiko Hirohito is the daughter of Samoan Chief Shimadzu, Marshal Yamagata Aritomo, an army veteran who is the leader of Changzhou School, once opposed Hirohito's marriage, so he made a personal feud with the Emperor.

Domestic appeasement policy fueled MacArthur's political ambition. He contacted domestic pro-Japanese factions through Gru, who resigned as acting secretary of state before the end of the war, joined Wall Street, became one of the interest agents of Japanese chaebol in the United States, and also served as the chairman of ACJ (American Committee on Japan). ACJ consists of American right-wing business leaders and wealthy conservatives. Although ostensibly opposed to the cartel monopoly policy, but resolutely opposed to the dissolution of the Japanese chaebol. They regard Japan as the only industrial base in Asia and look forward to the early resumption of trade with Japan. They believe that once the elites and powerful people in Japan's financial circles return to power, Japan's economy will soon develop again, so that the United States can also benefit from it. These people lobbied Congress to try to stop Japan's post-war reforms, and they were supported by Newsweek. Newsweek was founded by Avril harriman in 1937. He was born in the family of a railway king, served as the ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II, and was also accused of supporting Hitler before the war.

At the beginning of 1948, Japan's post-war reform suffered a fatal blow. In February of that year, Percy Johnson, a banker, was ordered to go to Japan to evaluate the results of post-war economic transformation. Johnson is the chairman of Chemical Bank, which has a long-term cooperative relationship with Mitsui Bank of Japan. The evaluation result is expected. Only 20 of the 325 Japanese chaebol and big companies were ordered to dissolve. No bank has been asked to restructure. Japanese banks cover up their past by renaming and other measures.

Hoover didn't care about diplomacy during his presidency, but after he left office, he suddenly became interested in diplomacy and traveled around the world in his personal capacity. Hoover met Hitler in 1938, trying to make the United States form an alliance with Germany to jointly fight against the Soviet Union. During his post-war visit to the Far East, Hoover established friendship with the Japanese royal family. He hoped that Japan would form an alliance with the United States and become an anti-* * outpost in the Pacific region and the base of the Asian Party. If he can use his influence to save the emperor from war trial, he can also save the Japanese government from trial, and let Japan's post-war recovery and reconstruction work begin as soon as possible, benefiting friends on Wall Street. From the gold held by Hoover and MacArthur, it can be seen that the efforts to exonerate Emperor Hirohito have indeed been richly rewarded.

One of the evidences that "Mountain Lily" gold has been discovered is the gold letter of credit issued by 1956 to Marcos. This was before he became a senator. The letter of credit was issued by Schweitzer Ische Bank Gesellschaft M.H.C., which proved that Marcos had deposited 765,438+020 tons of gold there. Another gold letter of credit is 1963 65438+ 10. On October 7th, it was opened by UBS to Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian arms magnate and Marcos' business partner. Hashoji's name is wrong in the letter of credit.

It is a mystery how much gold the Japanese army plundered from Southeast Asia. However, we can see some clues from the quantity of gold sold by Marcos and his agents. They secretly sell a lot of gold in the gold markets in London, Hong Kong and Sydney at any time. Sometimes the number of gold ingots sold at one time is as high as 10 ton, which is more than all known gold reserves in the Philippines. Every once in a while, the world's largest London Gold Exchange will have a secret sale called "Marcos Black Hawk". According to the estimated quantity sold, Marcos has about 65,000 tons of gold. This huge number can not help but give people a mythical illusion, so they think it may be fabricated. However, according to calculations, the total amount of gold mined in Southeast Asia is similar to this figure. Most of Marcos gold should come from Chinese who like to accumulate gold, so it may include gold flowing into Southeast Asia from other places through trade. After World War II, many Chinese tycoons who had been active in Nanyang for centuries were extinct-they were usually killed after their gold and wealth were robbed by the Japanese. This figure was also confirmed by a letter written by Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, to Marcos on February 2, 1986. Kissinger asked Marcos to sell 6332 1 ton of gold to 2000 European and American banks. Marcos rejected the proposal and was quickly overturned. According to unconfirmed accounts, he chose to hand over the gold to the United States to avoid criminal charges. Gold was loaded on the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and shipped to the United States.

In addition to the gold digging operation hosted by Marcos in the official name, many people privately searched for the wealth buried by the Japanese army in the mountains of the Philippines. The famous Rojas incident happened in the Philippines in the1970s. Domingo Rojas is a private treasure hunter in the Philippines. 1970, he found a pure gold Buddha statue in the northern mountainous area of Luzon Island, weighing about 1 ton, with a detachable head and a large number of rare jewels hidden in it. Judging from the photos published in newspapers and TV at that time, the Buddha statue has a typical Siam-Khmer style. When Marcos, then president of the Philippines, heard about this incident, he sent troops to snatch the Buddha statue from his home, causing public outcry in the Philippines. Marcos was forced to "return" a solid bronze Buddha statue with similar appearance. According to experts' estimation, the value of this golden Buddha statue alone exceeds 260 million dollars. 1996, the Rojas family sued Marcos and his heirs (Marcos died of illness in 1989) in the Hawaiian state court, demanding compensation for the losses. The trial number of this case is Roxas v Marcos, 89 Haw.9 1, 969 P.2D 1209. The court ruled in 1998 that Marcos' wife imelda must return the Buddha statue to Rojas.