Yamashita Treasure Codes and Signs

I have a friend who claimed that he was a descendant of a Japanese General during the war and that he was born in Laguna. He said that he ran away from home because of his cruel mother and a substance user. He was always receiving maltreatment from his mother which led him to go and find the treasure that was given to him by his great grand father, a general during world war 2. As he was alone and trying to find where the place on his map, he was lost several times and kept on struggling to find the place until he gained some friends and tried to find that place. After several months of trying to find the name of the place he finally found it but he was already too late because someone already had dug where the treasure. He was very disappointed and no money left to go home, and then we met him at that time.

He showed us his map and he claimed and still believed that there are still some left from the map that may be it was not yet recovered. I tried to analyze the map but it was barely unreadable specially the written "kanji" and some signs and symbols are also included. He had the idea of retracing the map using a pen which made it worse and unreadable. The story behind this map was that the official drew this map on a piece of clothing then they have divided among with other officers. Until the death of his grandfather, he gave this to my friend because he was the one who had taken care of his grandfather during his hospitalization.

The only thing I could understand in this map was the tree symbol, since "Kanji" was really complicated and needed to be learned for years. "Kanji" was still used in during the war until it was reformed and standardized today. People now in japan don't know how to read "Kanji" however it can be learned and taken into a University in Japan. He even tried to consult a fellow Japanese to decipher the map but he was scolded because of what he did on the map, he said that he had a certain chemical to restore to clearly see what is written on the map. The Japanese told him that there are booby traps indicated on the map and he should be very careful because bombs are included on the treasure and those bombs were greased and could still detonate once the contact point is triggered.

There were treasure signs also were visible such as the tree which is pointing at two boxes, and the two boxes is believed to be the treasure. Road was also a very visible indication and some codes are there but we could not decipher it. Every map has its own legend depending on who was the one in charge in cartography, Yamashita's treasure map was a very popular one and the most deciphered one and every sign and codes were already known to treasure hunters. Some were common signs but some are unique which is the hardest to decipher.

If you want more to see other treasure signs go here.