Chapter 2

Yamashita’s Gold

It was time to talk about the gold!

“Does anyone here speak English?”

An emaciated man shakingly stood up and said, “I do, I’m Doctor Singe!

“Doctor, I’m Lieutenant David Gibson! Can you tell me what is going on here?”

“Lieutenant, have you ever heard of General Yamashita?”

“No, Generals are above my pay grade! Especially enemy Generals!”

“General Yamashita, was given the task of collecting all of the wealth that the Japanese army had stolen from all of the countries they had invaded. Jewelry, precious stones, gold and currency were then brought to five islands here in the Solomon Islands and deposited into vaults built into lava tubes, like this one. Thousands of tons of concrete were poured around thick steel doors, booby traps were set and then everything was covered with tons of soil and replanted with jungle plants. Within six months, the entrances will be covered over with jungle that will be indistinguishable from the surrounding jungle and the treasures lost forever.

We are the conscripted workers who have survived building these five vaults. We were all dissidents, we were all against the war and agreed with what General Yamamoto said about awakening a sleeping giant! We unfortunately underestimated the influence the military had with Emperor Hirohito, and were arrested, our families enslaved or killed. Because we know the location of all five vaults, we were forced inside this last one and left to die of starvation or thirst. You say that there is a way out of this place, that we will survive?”

“Yes, we have lived in this tube for several months and have stolen the food from the original camp. In fact I am responsible for its complete destruction. I suggest that all of us enrich ourselves, but not with gold, gold is too heavy and hard to conceal. I think if we are found to possess any of this the authorities will confiscate all of it. Let’s take the cash and jewels and leave the gold. There may be a reward for showing where the vaults are and revealing the booby traps. But let’s just reward ourselves and not tell them how you escaped!”

The boxes were searched, the heavy ones were stacked neatly unopened. The lighter ones were opened and some were found to contain millions of dollars in diamonds, rubys, and emeralds. Others held exquisite jewelry, and others held millions of dollars worth of paper money from several different countries. Stolen from banks and businesses from every country the Jap’s had invaded. Millions of British Pounds from Hong Kong, and Singapore, but also French Franks, Dutch Guilders, Philippine Pesos, Malay Straits Dollar coins, and US dollars.

The Doctor told everyone not to be greedy, people with too much money bring people who will want to take it. It is better to take some, and be wise in how you spend it.

They gave me the first choice for rescuing them. I chose some of the diamonds, one hundred of them, without a loupe to see the clarity it was hit and miss, but I chose the best I could. They would be the most valuable and easiest of the selections to hide. I also took several bundles of cash, mostly US currency. Everyone else took a turn, with the Japanese ladies last. Some took more than others, and a few took a lot, too much to hide. Five twenty pound gold bars are difficult to carry and are even more difficult to hide while traveling. But the allure of gold is an all consuming passion that many men have died for, or because of. And any words expressed in trying to reason with them, are just as persuasive as a summer breeze.

Now we numbered ninety five, our food would be gone in just four days. The Japs had left the island, leaving nothing but a few more bodies of their soldiers. Soldiers who knew too much. There was no more food to get, at least from them. I had warned the group to be very careful of booby traps on the trails and off. I quickly disarmed the ones I had placed, but I found two more that I wasn’t responsible for, so I knew that there were more out there. Three people were killed in two separate tripwire incidents.

Then we discovered that there were at least two snipers left behind, four people were shot dead and six were wounded before I was able to find and shoot both of them. One of them came too damn close to getting me, before I got him!

I went hunting for pigs, at one time feral pigs were plentiful on the islands. But they had been hunted down to the point I rarely saw one. On my hunt I found a great place to look down the slot. It was high enough that I could see for a good twenty miles. By climbing a tree at the very top I could see just a little farther. Looking through the binoculars, I scanned as much and as well as I could and found no ships. The war had moved on, I knew that they were island hopping toward the home islands of the Japanese Empire.

I heard a faint rumbling sound, it was coming closer, it was a twin engine plane. I dug through my pack and found the emergency signal mirror in my survival kit. I located the plane, it was a Catalina PBY headed right for me. I quickly started signaling in Morse code,

“Lt D. Gibson SN 675-8293 USMC, have one hundred survivors of Jap occupation. Food running low... -... -... -... -.-.-... --... -... ----... -... -... --... -... ----... -------... --... -... ---.-. --... --... -... -... ----... --. -... -... -... -.-... -... ----.-... ---... -... ---.-.--... ----.-. -.-... -.--... --... ----... -.-.-... -. -------... -... --. -... -. --... -... ---.--.-.-.-

The circled about two miles in radius and sent,

--... ---... -... -.-... -. -... --... --... --... --... -... -... -... -. ---.-. --... ---... -.-... -.-. -------.--. -... -.-.-... -.-... -... -... --. -.--... ---.-.--... ----... -... --. -...

“Message received, we will inform our command. Are there any Japs on island?

----... -... -.--... -.-... -... -... --...

“Only civilians”

They blinked twice and resumed their original course low enough that the pilots and spotter in the bubble and I exchanged waves.

Two days later, I heard the sound of a twin engine plane. After locating it I found that it was an R4D, the Navy’s designation for the DC-3. I quickly located my signal mirror and signaled my location. I had made a three inch wide by ten foot long ribbon from my parachute. I unfurled it and held it overhead, this would give them at least the ground level wind direction and approximate speed.

They made four runs, the first they dropped a weighted ribbon of their own to get an idea of the winds aloft. On each of the next three runs they pushed large boxes out. They were designed to open just far enough above the ground for the chute to open, bring the drop speed to near zero, then hit the ground. Each box landed within fifty feet of me.

I signaled, “Great job! Thank you!”

I received two blinks back.

Everyone came out and we opened each box carefully. An envelope addressed to me was on top a portable radio set inside of the first box.

Lieutenant Gibson,

Use this radio to make contact with the freighter being sent to pick you and your civilians up, it should be in your vicinity in eight to ten days. The SS John W. Brown, a Liberty freighter, will make the pickup, then continue on to Rabaul. It will be escorted by the USS Allen DD-66, a four stack destroyer. Frequencies are preset, channel one is for the freighter, channel two is the destroyer. Make contact only if your status changes, or to make arrangements for pickup. Good luck!

Commander Gerald Westfalen

The boxes were filled with food, fifty pound sacks of rice and beans, cases of canned meats, canned vegetables, and chocolate bars. Medical supplies, feminine supplies, and clothing in various sizes filled another. The radio was in a canvas pack and had both a whip antenna and a wire antenna to be placed in a tree. It had a battery and a hand or foot operated generator. They had also included a kerosene stove, five gallons of fuel, some big pots, a M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun, with a sling and bipod, fifteen twenty round, loaded box magazines and five hundred rounds of .30-06 Springfield cartridges.

The girls and I moved everything to the lava tube. The wire antenna was strung up and onto a tall tree next to the caved-in section by one of the lighter girls climbing up the vines. We charged the battery every couple of days to keep a full charge on it.

I continued to make love to those girls that wanted to, Kamiko was my favorite, but Dorothy was a close second. A Korean girl named Soonja was third, but they were all beautiful and my ideal of the perfect woman. Sister Mary broke down and made it known that she would share a bed with any of the girls interested in having that kind of experience. She didn’t sleep alone a single night, and from the sounds coming from her direction, everyone was well satisfied.

The days went quickly and thankfully quietly, I made the trip to my observation post in the tree twice a day. On the morning of the ninth day the radio speaker broadcast my call sign just as I was about to go to the tree. I quickly responded, they were about two hours out and wanted confirmation that there were no Japanese soldiers on the island. I told them I would check and be back with them in thirty minutes.

I arrived at the tree just in time to see a strange looking Japanese submarine anchoring in the middle of the natural harbor. As I watched forty or so soldiers came up on the deck and started blowing up five eight man rubber rafts.

I had Johnny with me along with ten loaded magazines. I sent Kamiko back to call the USS Allen to tell them about the Type 3 submergence transport vehicle, a transport submarine. That was anchored in the bay. And to send one of the girls back with more loaded magazines.

The Johnny had a range of about six hundred yards, the sub was about five hundred yards. I set the tang type sight to five hundred yards and waited for them to get in the water. The sub had a machine gun mounted forward of the conning tower, but no one was manning it, yet! Kamiko came back with the news that the people on the destroyer didn’t believe her because of her accent. She also brought me five more loaded magazines. I wrote out a note for her to read to them,

I am speaking for Lieutenant David S. Gibson, Service number 675-8293 USMC. He told me to tell you that the damn Yankees won the “43” World Series four to one, and that Stan the Man Musial was voted Most Valuable Player for the Cardinals and Spud Chandler was voted the same for the Yankees. This year it looks like the Cards and the The Browns will be battling in St. Louis. And if you don’t hurry the fuck up, this Type three sub is going to be gone!

She left to go make the call. I set up the Johnny bipod on a branch and aimed at the lead rubber raft and squeezed the trigger. The bullets were hitting the water just short of the raft. I adjusted my aim and emptied the magazine then quickly swapped it out for a new one. I aimed at the second and started firing, moving the barrel back and forth just a little. As I changed magazines, I noticed four sailors manning the deck gun! It’s called target fixation, the shooter becomes fixated on the target to the exclusion of everything else. If I hadn’t had to change magazines, I would probably have been killed! I swung my aim and fired on the gun’s crew, they didn’t have any shields and when they were all down, I switched back to raft number three. The other two rafts were trying to get away from the sub. Once again I changed magazines and targeted both of the remaining rafts, spraying them both at the same time. These soldiers were wearing full packs, when the rafts deflated they were too heavy to float or swim. They sank, I had no sympathy, they were coming to this island to kill us!

More sailors were manning the deck gun, so I switched out magazines and took them out too. The submarine was getting underway, the propellers began churning up the water in the stern. The natural harbor wasn’t very big and only about thirty feet deep, so it couldn’t dive. The rudder was hard over to port which helped divert the flow of water to turn the vessel, but it was slow to respond.

Just as the sub was about to get fully turned around the USS Allen blocked its way. A 4” shell fired from one of the two bow guns in its forward turret, exploded directly in front of the bow of the submarine. The message was very clear, give up or die! I heard the faint sound of two gunshots, just as hatches opened and twenty two men came up on deck with hands on their heads. Perhaps the Captain of the boat had chosen a different outcome.

The Captain’s gig was lowered into the water from the destroyer and Marines covered the Japanese until they could be picked up. The submarine was moved into shallow water, hatches were closed and valves opened so that it sank into the mud and sand of the bottom. The conning tower was the only part of the boat above water, its hatch was closed and it was left to be salvaged later.

The freighter made it to our island and we met the lifeboats they sent to pick us up at the burned out Jap base. We carried everything we could carry, that we wanted, and waited while the boats carried forty of us at a time to the freighter. Three days later we were in Rabaul, New Britton. We had a big party and celebrated our rescue. Afterward both Kamiko, Soonja, and Dorothy spent the night with me. The next morning we said our goodbyes and I never saw any of them again.

I was flown to Australia and was debriefed by several Army Air Force officers. In the end I was to be awarded the Silver Star for the capture of the Type 3 submarine. They were going to investigate and interview the others to determine what if any other chest salad was warranted. When they finished I was sent home on the first available plane. After way too many hours of flight stopping at Midway Island, then Hawaii, then on to San Francisco. In Frisco I was able to hitch a ride to Lackland AAFB near San Antonio, my hometown of Hondo was forty miles west of town, I would be home for a month of accrued leave. Then I would be going back to war again.

My Dad was waiting on the tarmac when the B-17G landed and taxied up to him. I thanked the air crew for the ride, and hugged my Dad before getting in the old Ford truck to go home to our ranch three miles west of Hondo. As we traveled, I told him about my experiences, the island and the women. I also shared with him the story of Yamashita’s Gold, and showed him the diamonds. When we arrived in Hondo, I asked him to stop at the Bank. I rented a safe deposit box and made sure to put Dad as co owner. I placed all but one of the diamonds in it, from the leather pouch of the money belt I’ve worn since I left this town over three years ago. And almost all of the cash that had been in the bottom of my duffel bag. The next stop was old man Frowly’s Jewelry Store, just down the block. He is an old friend of the family and honest as the day is long. He looked up from the watch he was repairing, a big smile came to his face when he recognized me.

“David, it’s great to see you! I heard from your Dad that you were missing in action, then came the news that you were alive and well, on an island with fifty women. Leave it to you to be stranded on an island with women!”

“Did they happen to mention that there were also three hundred Japanese soldiers on the island with us?”

“Come to think of it, that was mentioned a time or two! I also heard that you managed to get rid of all of them! Now, you didn’t come in here, to hear an old man talk! What can I do for you, David?”

“I want you to appraise a stone for me.” David said as he produced the diamond, placing it on the Jeweler’s black presentation cloth.

Without touching it he used his 10X powered Loupe to examine the diamond very thoroughly,

“It has a triple excellent cut, it is “D” grade colorless, and flawless clarity!” Then he picked it up and placed it on a balance scale, carefully moving the slide weight until the beam was in perfect balance. Then he read the scale. “Two point three five carats!” He sat back, looking down at the diamond he had moved back to the black cloth. After a full two minutes, he looked at David and said, “David, this is the most perfect diamond I have ever seen! And it’s one of the largest perfect diamonds too! This diamond is worth over fifty thousand dollars!”

“What would you say if I told you that I have ninety nine more diamonds in similar sizes, and just from my eyesight, they all look the same as this one.”

“I would say you have a big problem, you know that the Marine Corps as well as the Army have a policy that prohibits looting of any sort. What you have, no matter how you choose to tell the story, is loot! If it was a small amount it wouldn’t be a problem, but you have potentially five million dollars worth of loot! How are you going to hide that from the Marine Corps? How are you going to hide that from the Internal Revenue Service?”

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead, Uncle Walt! This is all part of the spoils of war that the Japanese stole from everyone and every country they occupied, there is no way of telling who owned these diamonds, much less know where they are now, or if they are even alive.”

“You know that doesn’t mean a Tinker’s damn! It’s the fact that you are in possession of them that matters! We need to come up with a plan so you can benefit from them without going to jail! Let me think about it and do some investigating, come see me next week!”

“Okay Uncle Walt! I’ll think about it too! I’ll see you later!”

I walked down Main Street to the Renfro Drug Store, we all would hang out there when we were teenagers. I knew that there wouldn’t be anyone my age there, but maybe the druggist would know where everyone my age was now, especially Sue Ellen Ramy!

Sue Ellen was my girlfriend before I joined the Marines. She had written to me for a while, but I only wrote back once in a while. She had stopped writing after a year.

The kids at the soda counter all turned to see who had just walked in the door to make the bell ring. I actually knew a couple of them, their older brothers had been in my class in High School.

“Hello, Jack, Jimmy! How are your brothers?”

“Hey, David, long time no see! My brother Larry died in North Africa at the battle at Kasserine Pass. His tank was hit by a German 88.” Jack said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know! I’ll miss seeing him, he was a great guy!”

“Hank is with Patton, in France! He’s a Captain now!” Jimmy exclaimed proudly.

“Next time you write to him, tell him that this old Marine Lieutenant says “Hello!”

“I’ll do that, Lieutenant! I’ll also tell him how you got your Silver Star!”

“No, don’t tell him that, it’s shit like that that could get him killed! Don’t goad him into sticking his neck out any more than his ass is already exposed!”

I turned to Mr. Prentice, the druggist and owner of the store,

“Hello Mr. Prentice, how are things?”

“David Gibson, good to see you! We’ve been hearing good things about you!”

“Well you know how they like to blow things up to keep people buying War Bonds!”

“What I’ve heard is not propaganda! How long are you home?

“I have twenty five days before I have to catch a ride back to San Francisco! So what’s going on in town, any of my old compadres around?”

“Most of them are either married or off in the war, in one service or another. Some of them haven’t made it, Glen Davies, Pete Peterson, Jeff Blummer, Alan Dickerson, and Steve Basore. There are a couple more that are older than you, Jim Burke, and Wally Cleaver. That’s quite a few to lose in such a small town. I would certainly rather lose them when they go to college, than this way.”

“Do you know where Sue Ellen Ramy is?”

“You need to forget her, boy! She married Abe Jenson three years ago and has two kids and another on the way!”

“It was just a thought, I think I’ll just go down to the Seven Spot and have a few beers and shoot some pool! Thanks for the information Mr. Prentice!”

“Good to see you David! Keep your head down when you go back out there!”

I nodded and waved goodbye to him and the boys then walked toward the truck, which was parked close to the bar, The Seven Spot. Maybe one ice cold beer would feel good going down my throat on this hot September day. I stepped through the door and moved to the right, like I saw Gary Cooper do when entering a saloon in a movie. He wasn’t highlighted by the sun in the doorway while his eyes adjusted to the dark room of the bar. I always thought that made a lot of sense! When my eyes had adjusted to the gloom of the bar, I could see the usual old guys, and the middle aged, fat, barmaid, all looking a few years older. The men were playing dominoes at three tables.

At the bar was trouble, my old nemesis, John Brewer, a big guy whose IQ was smaller than his belt size and he wasn’t that fat. That might be exaggerated a bit. He used to torment me at Little League games. He had gotten in trouble with the law quite often before and after High School. The Judge here in town had given him a choice, ninety days in jail, or join the Army! He chose the Army, but the Army rejected him for being too stupid!

So there he was, and it looked like he had been there for a while! Here I am in my summer khaki uniform that I’m required to wear in public and meet the most belligerent asshole in all of Kansas. Once he recognized me, he would probably want to continue to harass and belittle me. Something I wouldn’t take from him anymore, even if it cost me my only summer khaki uniform!

I sat two stools down from him and ordered a beer for myself and another for him. He looked up from his beer when the one I ordered was delivered in front of him.

“Hello Big John!” I said,

“Davey, is that you? You’ve grown up! I’ve been hearing great things about you Davey!”

“It’s me, Big John! We all grow up sometime! Thanks, John, it’s good to hear you say it!”

“I tried to join the Army and they wouldn’t take me! I want to do my part, and they won’t let me!”

“You just asked the wrong branch of the service John! You need to be a Marine! I’ll tell you what, tomorrow I’ll pick you up and we’ll go to the Marine Corps Recruiting Office and we’ll get you enlisted! How’s that sound?”

“You would do that for me, Davey? After the way I’ve treated you all those years?”

“You never really hurt me, Big John! That’s all in the past anyway, let’s see what tomorrow brings!”

We had a few more beers and I learned more about John than I ever knew. His Dad used to beat him senseless, his mother had left the abusive man before he killed her, he had blamed John. When the bar closed, I took him to his apartment.

I picked him up at nine o’clock the next morning, on the drive to Independence, I told him how he was going to have to act. That he had to pull himself together and try harder than he had ever tried before. That being a Marine was the greatest single thing that he would ever do in his life, and to be a good Marine you had to focus, follow orders, and get the job done! But he had to make a commitment here and now to do better than his best at doing whatever it takes to be a good Marine! He promised me that he would do it!