A local man in Burma may have discovered a massive cache of gold and jewelry that was buried during the waning days of World War Two – or so he claims.
Rumours of boundless buried fortunes have sparked romantic treasure hunts over the decades, usually resulting in spectacular failure. However, this time may be different.
A property owner in central Burma’s city of Zigon who was in the process of deepening a pond on his land found an unusual item in the soil, and immediately notified the authorities. Alleged geology expert U Soe Thein rushed to the site.
“I inserted an iron bar into the soil and hit a wooden box,” said Soe Thein. “The head of the iron bar was then stained with asphalt after piercing into the box.”
According to legend, the Imperial Japanese Army made off with a vast fortune of looted gold from the territories it occupied in Southeast Asia and Soe Thein claims that the Japanese were known to encase their spoils in concrete.
“Burying the gold with the protection of the asphalt is deliberate. It is obvious that the wooden box was elaborately made. The Japanese invaders used the same method to store gold in the Philippines”, he said.
However, new research reports that much of the infamous treasure stolen by the imperial army may in fact have made its way to Japan by way of the Philippines during the final days of the war.
