A
Anonymous
Guest
I was away this weekend to attend the wedding of a childhood friend. This friend of mine was a classmate from kindergarten till high school. We went to a catholic run school in Marikina, Philippines. The name of the school is Marist. I believe there are quiet a few Marist schools in the US too. They are run by the same religious group. I was the wedding photographer (my gift to the couple was the photo coverage, a few portraits and the wedding album).
At the reception I had the opportunity to have a chat with the groom's father. I had known for a long time that he used to metal detect back in the 70s in the Philippines but never had a chance talk to him about his exploits. When we had a chance to sit down and discuss this common interest, he was very enthusiastic about the subject and I was surprised at what level he had taken the hobby back then. In actuality, what I found out was that he was not a metal detectorist per se, he was a full blown treasure hunter from the 1950s till the late 70s.
As for equipment, they had used an assortment of whites and sears roebuck (?) metal detectors back in his time to hunt for treasure. According to him, there was very little discrimination. I explained to him how far technology had advanced thru the years and described how much discrimination and target ID was now available from an average metal detector. I think I may have gotten him hooked again.
As he went to describe what they had done back in their time, he basically categorized their involvement in the seeking of primarily two types of treasure.
First and foremost, they were looking for cache treasure left by retreating Japanese forces in the World War 2 liberation of Manila.
As many of you know, the Philippines was the main bastion of the Japanese in South East Asia during World War II. After looting most of the region, treasure gotten from the countries like Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore was shipped to the Philippines for processing before they were repatriated back to Japan for melting. The most famous item from this treasure is the legendary golden buddha from Burma. I had actually seen pictures of the recovered budha back home. It was a hollow statue made of pure gold say 3 feet high with a solid gold head. It is said that most of the deposed Philippine dictator Marcos's fortune was actually from treasure hunting during his tenure. This was never disclosed as he had used government resources to recover the treasure and supposedly, the stuff was still legally recoverable by the original owners due to some statute of limitation (?).
As the story went on, I was told that in the liberation of Manila, the commanding general, Yamashita, ordered his troops to individually carry what they could and retreat from General Mcarthur's forces. As the Japanese soldiers retreated, some soldiers had buried their heavy burden in caches whenever they could to ease their trouble or latter recovery. The trick was knowing the path of retreat and locating witnesses.
According to my friends father, treasure from this source varied from shallow buried jewelry caches left by retreating soldiers to elaborately tunneled deposits, which in all likelyhood were organized by senior officers.
He told me that his group was able to recover a few caches in their time. The closest they ever got to real treasure was when they were guided by a local to where that person had sworn there was Japanese buried treasure. It was supposedly a major operation which is why the person "in the know" needed the assistance of those with experience, financing and guts to under take the task. Through their tunneling, he mentioned that they were able to recover various Japanese military relics like mess kits, boots, machine gun tripods, etc.....(which to this day my friends says littered their garage back home. All the signs were positive until the Philippine military came in (then under the dictator Marcos) and took over the site. He spent some time in prison for that one. Nothing could be done at the time as the Philippines was for years under martial law in the 70s. He mentioned that that was one of the reasons he quit treasure hunting. He likened treasure hunting to a familiar Filipino cliche' "mitsa nang buhay". Translated this meant that any more treasure hunting would have been similar to lighting the fuse (dynamite fuse) on your life.
Their main source of financing for their treasure pursuits was the trading of antiquities. Through his hunt for Japanese treasure, he had come into contact with a couple of fellows who were adept at finding lost and forgotten ancient chinese burial sites.
The Philippines has been trading with China for centuries, possibly since pre-history. It has a sizeable and established chinese community, much like any other major nation on earth. Apparently, according to my friend's father, there were more that a few burial chinese sites around the country.
The chinese are known for ancestor worship and they usually bury their dead with personal treasure and artifacts. To this day, the rich Chinese in the Philippines bury their dead with full feasts of food, paper mache' mansions, cars, planes, mistresses, and paper money.
With the assistance of his, now fully employed, burial site experts. They were able to find treasure.
As I quizzed him on how this was done, he described the process as follows.
1) His people would identify sites by investigating bamboo outcrops and their location relative to the surrounding topography.
2) Once a site is identified, they would go over it looking for signs of broken pottery.
3) His employees were supposedly adept at finding the sites and locating the actual burial chamber.
4) Their primarily tool were World War 2 wire whip antennaes from the venerable Jeep.
5) With the antennae, they would probe the ground for burial chambers.
I know what you are thinking, this is poaching, but hey, it was back in the 70s and people were not politically correct then.
Treasure from this source were mostly pottery and some jewelry. In his stories, one of the most notable pieces of pottery he ever recovered was the statue of a chinese boy taking a bath in a bath tub. The size of the whole thing was supposedly no bigger than a few packs of cigarettes. According to him, that one piece went for around 5,000 dollars in the early 70s. Actually, he said that its sale was the first time and reason he had ever been to the US.
We talked for about 2 hours at the reception and I was told a whole lot of stories about treasure. Some involving him and some second hand. Most interesting were those of treasure digs near my home town by Marcos's military itself and of rumoured recovery of the major portions of the Yamashita treasure itself. I'll tell those in another time.
A lot of the second hand stories involved mostly speculation of what could have been recovered by those involved. The actual stories from my friends father were of small caches, burial chambers and a few failed attempts at real treasure. Over all, I found the stories of great interest. I thought I might share them with you guys.
Rgds, bing
At the reception I had the opportunity to have a chat with the groom's father. I had known for a long time that he used to metal detect back in the 70s in the Philippines but never had a chance talk to him about his exploits. When we had a chance to sit down and discuss this common interest, he was very enthusiastic about the subject and I was surprised at what level he had taken the hobby back then. In actuality, what I found out was that he was not a metal detectorist per se, he was a full blown treasure hunter from the 1950s till the late 70s.
As for equipment, they had used an assortment of whites and sears roebuck (?) metal detectors back in his time to hunt for treasure. According to him, there was very little discrimination. I explained to him how far technology had advanced thru the years and described how much discrimination and target ID was now available from an average metal detector. I think I may have gotten him hooked again.
As he went to describe what they had done back in their time, he basically categorized their involvement in the seeking of primarily two types of treasure.
First and foremost, they were looking for cache treasure left by retreating Japanese forces in the World War 2 liberation of Manila.
As many of you know, the Philippines was the main bastion of the Japanese in South East Asia during World War II. After looting most of the region, treasure gotten from the countries like Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore was shipped to the Philippines for processing before they were repatriated back to Japan for melting. The most famous item from this treasure is the legendary golden buddha from Burma. I had actually seen pictures of the recovered budha back home. It was a hollow statue made of pure gold say 3 feet high with a solid gold head. It is said that most of the deposed Philippine dictator Marcos's fortune was actually from treasure hunting during his tenure. This was never disclosed as he had used government resources to recover the treasure and supposedly, the stuff was still legally recoverable by the original owners due to some statute of limitation (?).
As the story went on, I was told that in the liberation of Manila, the commanding general, Yamashita, ordered his troops to individually carry what they could and retreat from General Mcarthur's forces. As the Japanese soldiers retreated, some soldiers had buried their heavy burden in caches whenever they could to ease their trouble or latter recovery. The trick was knowing the path of retreat and locating witnesses.
According to my friends father, treasure from this source varied from shallow buried jewelry caches left by retreating soldiers to elaborately tunneled deposits, which in all likelyhood were organized by senior officers.
He told me that his group was able to recover a few caches in their time. The closest they ever got to real treasure was when they were guided by a local to where that person had sworn there was Japanese buried treasure. It was supposedly a major operation which is why the person "in the know" needed the assistance of those with experience, financing and guts to under take the task. Through their tunneling, he mentioned that they were able to recover various Japanese military relics like mess kits, boots, machine gun tripods, etc.....(which to this day my friends says littered their garage back home. All the signs were positive until the Philippine military came in (then under the dictator Marcos) and took over the site. He spent some time in prison for that one. Nothing could be done at the time as the Philippines was for years under martial law in the 70s. He mentioned that that was one of the reasons he quit treasure hunting. He likened treasure hunting to a familiar Filipino cliche' "mitsa nang buhay". Translated this meant that any more treasure hunting would have been similar to lighting the fuse (dynamite fuse) on your life.
Their main source of financing for their treasure pursuits was the trading of antiquities. Through his hunt for Japanese treasure, he had come into contact with a couple of fellows who were adept at finding lost and forgotten ancient chinese burial sites.
The Philippines has been trading with China for centuries, possibly since pre-history. It has a sizeable and established chinese community, much like any other major nation on earth. Apparently, according to my friend's father, there were more that a few burial chinese sites around the country.
The chinese are known for ancestor worship and they usually bury their dead with personal treasure and artifacts. To this day, the rich Chinese in the Philippines bury their dead with full feasts of food, paper mache' mansions, cars, planes, mistresses, and paper money.
With the assistance of his, now fully employed, burial site experts. They were able to find treasure.
As I quizzed him on how this was done, he described the process as follows.
1) His people would identify sites by investigating bamboo outcrops and their location relative to the surrounding topography.
2) Once a site is identified, they would go over it looking for signs of broken pottery.
3) His employees were supposedly adept at finding the sites and locating the actual burial chamber.
4) Their primarily tool were World War 2 wire whip antennaes from the venerable Jeep.
5) With the antennae, they would probe the ground for burial chambers.
I know what you are thinking, this is poaching, but hey, it was back in the 70s and people were not politically correct then.
Treasure from this source were mostly pottery and some jewelry. In his stories, one of the most notable pieces of pottery he ever recovered was the statue of a chinese boy taking a bath in a bath tub. The size of the whole thing was supposedly no bigger than a few packs of cigarettes. According to him, that one piece went for around 5,000 dollars in the early 70s. Actually, he said that its sale was the first time and reason he had ever been to the US.
We talked for about 2 hours at the reception and I was told a whole lot of stories about treasure. Some involving him and some second hand. Most interesting were those of treasure digs near my home town by Marcos's military itself and of rumoured recovery of the major portions of the Yamashita treasure itself. I'll tell those in another time.
A lot of the second hand stories involved mostly speculation of what could have been recovered by those involved. The actual stories from my friends father were of small caches, burial chambers and a few failed attempts at real treasure. Over all, I found the stories of great interest. I thought I might share them with you guys.
Rgds, bing