A retired soldier is heading up a treasure hunt near the Presidential Office in yet another search for gold supposedly left by Japanese forces at the end of World War II.
Gold was allegedly buried in the area now covered by two parking lots outside the Armed Forces Reserve Command at the corner of Yen-ping South Road and Kui-yang Street. Senior officers in the Imperial Army were headquartered there during the Japanese colonial era.
The former soldier, identified only by his family name, Yang, was involved in the administrative takeover of Taiwan following the Japanese retreat from the island. He applied for permission to hunt for the gold several times in the past, but was rebuffed because the site had been turned into a housing area for veterans.
However, he finally obtained permission from the owner of the parking lots that are now on the site -- and so his application to begin a dig was approved.
The dig got underway six months ago. The treasure hunters will have to restore the parking lots to their original condition once their search is over.
The group funding the search is made up of two excavating companies, private citizens, relatives of senior police officials, army representatives and retired Chunghwa Telecom employees.
One of the companies involved in the dig says that investors have gathered between NT$20 million and NT$30 million to excavate the first parking lot and that it will cost between NT$50 million and NT$60 million to search both parking lots.
In the six months since the dig started, 18m of soil has been excavated. However, the area set aside for the first stage of the dig covers only one third of the first parking lot.
There is a long history of hunting for gold that retreating Japanese forces reportedly left in Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and several other countries. There have been about a dozen famous search efforts in Taiwan, none of which were unsuccessful.
Some people believe that the Japanese hid gold in the mountains of Taiwan, close to the coast, in the hope of being able to return to retrieve it at a later time. Such rumors were given some credence during the KMT era when the government issued a regulation covering the unearthing or salvaging from the sea of goods and materials buried or sunk in Taiwan Province by the Japanese. A committee was also set up to review applications from would-be treasure hunters.
Some of those searching for gold have claimed to have maps handed down by relatives or given to them by high-ranking government officials, or said that they obtained information from a Japanese individual.
One famous outbreak of gold fever occurred in Nantou County in 1961, when an Aboriginal man said that he had seen the Japanese transporting heavy crates up Kukushan (姑姑山). He claimed one of the crates had been dropped and broken, revealing gold bricks. The story that over 300 tonnes of gold had been buried on Kukushan attracted hordes of people who hoped they would be able to find the buried treasure.
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