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Treasure hunting and detecting in the Philippines

I finished the 2nd book , Steel's Gold

I finished the 2nd book, Steel's Gold the other day i really enjoyed it , I hope there might be a follow up book to the series . It would be easy to pick up a few months down the road possibly on a diffrent island since there is rummored hidden treasure on many of the islands. I would like to see the inside of some of the carved out caves and bunkers the Japanese used to make their last stand. Some people still think there is treasure hid in fortification at Corregidor. Gold was shipped out of there in a submarine before it fell to the Japanese, lots of gold and silver has never really been accounted for. The head comander of the Japanese forces that took Corregidore even had a coin stamped over the top of the Philippine coins comerating the victory,that he gave his officers. There is lots of information on Corregidor for any one intrested at CORREGIDOR.ORG .
 
Japanese treasure

Thanks. I hope you enjoy reading my novels. Yeah the rush of looking in the mountainous jungle and caves was a rush. It is, however, a young man's sport. ha

How much of that Japanese treasure do you have burried out on your farm. ? :laughing: If you had it all to do over what would you have done diffrent in looking for the gold and treasure? What do you consider your best find during that time.? Did you have any local partners to help hunt like Steal did in the book ?
 
I have to wonder how much the Japanese could bury without the locals knowing. I used to sit quietly and listen to Grandpa and his friends talk about their time in the Philippines. One had been part of the Death March. A few beers and they would forget I was there. One thing that left an impression on me was their talk of the heroics of the Filipinos. According to these old white non-politically correct Veterans The Filipinos were "Tough little Sum-bitches that ain't afraid of Sh*t". I always thought that was mighty high praise from a group of guys that had been there and done that.
 
burried Japanes gold

I have to wonder how much the Japanese could bury without the locals knowing. I used to sit quietly and listen to Grandpa and his friends talk about their time in the Philippines. One had been part of the Death March. A few beers and they would forget I was there. One thing that left an impression on me was their talk of the heroics of the Filipinos. According to these old white non-politically correct Veterans The Filipinos were "Tough little Sum-bitches that ain't afraid of Sh*t". I always thought that was mighty high praise from a group of guys that had been there and done that.

Much of the gold the Japanese burried they used slave labor both Filippiones and American to carve out tunnels after they were done they were executed , they left very few alive who knew the secretes. But not only was the treasure hid by the higher up officers for Japan , but many private soldiers also hid things they had looted. The soldiers often were then killed in battle and the small stashes left there. Some time they made maps and relatives came back trying to find the treasures. If you go on Nick's blog and click on some of the articles you will see pictures of some of the hill natives carrying big worl war II guns. My day servied over there in the last part of the war , like most World War vets he didn't talk about it much. About the only time he would talk about the war was over a few beers with his brother. His brother served with Patton and also wouldn't talk about the war. I would of loved to lear more of his experences but about all he woul d say is it was a god forsaken place and he hated it. I have always been intrested in the Philippines ,read a lot of their history, and in 1989 married my pen pal from Bohol Philippines , still married. I have been over there a number of time the lat 2 i took my detector with me.
 

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Suspect treasure cave

Here's a couple of cave/Japanese command posts I explored in the Philippines in the Zambales Mountains west of Clark Air Base. One of my diggers is posed in front of one. Many were long and deep. Several I never did find the end of the tunnel. Most were loaded with WWII items--mostly Japanese artifacts such as weaponry, misc military equipment and loads of ordinance and human remains. My old White's metal detector generally was overwhelm by the leftover ordinance. It was more helpful looking for bigger/deeper targets.
 

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Great pictures

Here's a couple of cave/Japanese command posts I explored in the Philippines in the Zambales Mountains west of Clark Air Base. One of my diggers is posed in front of one. Many were long and deep. Several I never did find the end of the tunnel. Most were loaded with WWII items--mostly Japanese artifacts such as weaponry, misc military equipment and loads of ordinance and human remains. My old White's metal detector generally was overwhelm by the leftover ordinance. It was more helpful looking for bigger/deeper targets.

Great photos i woul love to see the inside of one of the caves full of Japanes militaty stuff. The sword would look great displayed above a fire place mantle. Can you imagine what all that Japanes stuff would be worth over here today to collectors.
 
Young mans sport

Thanks. I hope you enjoy reading my novels. Yeah the rush of looking in the mountainous jungle and caves was a rush. It is, however, a young man's sport. ha

Your only as old as you feel and when it comes to lost treasures i think we are all about 10 years old and beleave we can still do anything. I can imagine what you can do now with droids equiped with cameras as well as Google earth , lots of old maps avaliable online.. As well as all the information about the war avaliable on the internet. It sure makes doing the research a lot easier.
 
Treasure

Now that would have been really neat if you could have found some treasure like that on your recent visit there !!!! View attachment 389645 :shock:

While i didn't find any Japanese Treasure ,just some moderen Philippines coins last trip , my Mother-in-law gave me some older coins that they had stored in a hollow coconut for about 30-40 years. While they have little value they where intresting to see and i am starting a collection of Philippine coins. Would still love to find some World War II relics on one of my next trips. While in the Philippines one of my relatives over there almost 7 years old became intrested in my detector ,we are sending him a Bounty huntrer tracker IV that should arive about Christmas . He will have lots of beaches and very little compitation where he lives. Hope he finds that treasure he wants to be rich.
 
While i didn't find any Japanese Treasure ,just some moderen Philippines coins last trip , my Mother-in-law gave me some older coins that they had stored in a hollow coconut for about 30-40 years. While they have little value they where intresting to see and i am starting a collection of Philippine coins. Would still love to find some World War II relics on one of my next trips. While in the Philippines one of my relatives over there almost 7 years old became intrested in my detector ,we are sending him a Bounty huntrer tracker IV that should arive about Christmas . He will have lots of beaches and very little compitation where he lives. Hope he finds that treasure he wants to be rich.

Neat Christmas present !!!! :present:

Hopefully he'll be able to email you some photos of his finds, or at least tell you about them !
:detector:
 
He has big ideas of being rich and finding treasure

Neat Christmas present !!!! :present:

Hopefully he'll be able to email you some photos of his finds, or at least tell you about them !
:detector:

Being almost 7 he has big ideas, the whole time i was there in the Philippines he made a point to spend a lot of time with me. He wanted to practice his English and had a lot of questions about America. He is big for his age built like a Sumo wrestler must be around a 100 lbs. So i fighured he could swing a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV adjusted to it's shortest lenth and his dad can also use it. At his age he thinks all coins are a treasure so in his eyes he will be rich. I am sure we will hear about his finds as well mountains of bottle caps he finds. I have not been able to vist his island yet due to safty issues, but may be next time i visit we can detect together. I know the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV works well over there because i have taken that model the last 2 trips. Since their coins are mixed metals i hunt in all metal mode anyway,and it is a durable machine. I used a 4" coil trying to get around some of the trash on the beach. I figured my Fisher F4 had too big a coil for the trashy beaches there. Wouldn't mind trying one of those new Mojovie detectors over there some time.
 
I downloaded both of Nick Auclair's books to my tablet. As soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading I'll start the first one. I'm looking forward to it.
 
Nick's books

I downloaded both of Nick Auclair's books to my tablet. As soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading I'll start the first one. I'm looking forward to it.

I think you will enjoy them , i sure did , hopefully there will be a 3rd in the series some time in the future. Let me know what you think of them when you get done.
 
Has any one else read or down loaded Nicks books yet

I downloaded both of Nick Auclair's books to my tablet. As soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading I'll start the first one. I'm looking forward to it.

Wondered if any one else had read Nick's books yet ? I enjoyed them a lot and hope there will be a third in the series. Would love to hear any one elses opion on them. I figure there are probably a number of people on here that spent some time in the Philippines on one of the Military bases. The book is set on and Near Clark Air force base.
 
Hi Grumpa

Thanks for downloading my books. I hope you enjoy reading them. Writing about the Philippines certainly brought back some great treasure hunting memories. Nick
 
Nick's new post

Hi Grumpa

Thanks for downloading my books. I hope you enjoy reading them. Writing about the Philippines certainly brought back some great treasure hunting memories. Nick

Nick has added threads of his own on this site with some great pictures of his adventures in the Philippines.
 
This treasure hunting thread

I started this thread because i was in need of finding some good reading materal for my Kindle ,to take on the long flight to and from the Philippines for vacation this summer. Any one making that trip will know how long that is ,going 1/2 way around the world stuck in a small plane seat. I was looking up on Amazon to find books with treasure , Philippins , metal detecting and found several and down loaded several of them. Most were disapointing and not worth reading ,but when i got to Nick Auclair 's "Steel's Treasure" which was about treasure hunting in the mid 1980's in the Philippines only about 40 years after the war,i really liked it. At that point i had never hear of Nick Acclair as a author so i googled him , i found he had written a second book 'Steel's Gold " which continued where the other one left off. I also found out he was a self published author , had a blog, site and a e-mail address. I went to his blog and read several articles he wrote including one for" Soldier of Fortune" and another one for "Western & Eastern Treasure Magazine " I found out that many of the events in his fiction books were based on his real experences over there at that time. Nick has a e-mail on his blog where i contacted him and invited him to join our forum. He has a thread going under the "members link" titled "Looking for lost World War II treasure " . Nicks user name on here is "ncauclair" and he has added some good photoes during the 1980's of his time over there. While there are a small number of people on here that think there never was a treasure most people beleave there was. Right now the news papers all over Asia are reporting on the neogations between the Marcos family and the goverment to return money and gold bars to the Philippine goverment to finish and end law suits that have gone on since the Marcos were force out of office.
 
Marcos fortune

If the goverment of the Philippines comes to a agreement with the Marcos family to sette all the law suits may be the truth about their wealth will come out one way or the other. It will certanily be interesting to see what happens. There is lots of speculation on the whole thing in papers all over Asia. Hopefully it will happen soon , the Marcos family is trying to set his son up to be the next President of the Philippines. The Marcos family were big financial supporters of the curent Presiden, who is now saying Marcos was on of the Philippines greates Presidents.
 
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