Yamashita Fengwen is 1 meter 74 tall and weighs 90 kilograms, so he is known as the giant of the Japanese army in World War II, and later he led a large bicycle army to chase the British army around the Malay Peninsula, capturing 120,000 prisoners in Singapore, thus gaining the nickname of "Tiger of Malay".
In this regard, if you ask who the Japanese generals in World War II are the most hated by the British, Yamashita Will definitely be in the top three.
On October 8, 1885, Yamashita Washumi was born in Oyama Village, Kochi Prefecture, Japan, where his ancestors were barefoot doctors, but when he arrived at Yamashita, he was obsessed with joining the army from an early age.
He studied at the Hiroshima Army Early Childhood School, the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, the Japanese Army University, and after graduation, he studied in Switzerland and Germany. It is said that his resume had to be mixed up as a general in the Japanese army, but he was not welcomed everywhere and was ostracized.
The reason for this is because at that time, the Imperial Daoist faction and the unification faction in the Japanese army were in dispute, the Imperial Daoist faction advocated invading the Soviet Union, and the tusson faction advocated invading China, both factions were not good things, Yamashita Fengwen was a hegemonic faction, but he also sympathized with the Imperial Daoist faction.
Therefore, he was a wall-headed grass, not a person inside and out, and he was ostracized everywhere, and he even wanted to retire from the army at one time, but he was retained by the Minister of War Kawashima and arranged to be a brigade commander in Korea.
Most of his classmates who graduated during this period made meritorious achievements on the battlefield, and only he was still sitting on the cold bench.
However, at the beginning of the Pacific War, Yamashita was recalled to the Tokyo base camp, and then appointed commander of the Army's 25th Army, the mission was to take Malaysia and Singapore within 100 days, plunder rubber, oil and other strategic resources, and prepare for the Japanese army's total conquest of Southeast Asia.
Yamashita Fengwen attached great importance to this battle, and whether he could turn over or not depended on this time, and he carefully studied the British military deployment in the Far East. At that time, the British army was mainly stationed in Malaysia and Singapore, with a strength of about 140,000 people, equipped with 40 mm anti-tank guns, several airfields and 158 various combat aircraft.
The command center, Singapore, was self-proclaimed by the British as an impenetrable fortress. Lieutenant General Deshua, the Supreme Commander of the British Defense in Malaysia, did not pay any attention to the Japanese at all, and the Japanese army attacked Malaysia with only more than 90,000 troops, and the equipment was far behind the British army.
He confidently formulated the "Matador Plan", thinking that if he followed the plan, he would ensure the safety of the Malay Peninsula. Unfortunately, the ideal is very beautiful, and the reality is very bone.
Yamashita Bongwen did not play his cards according to the routine at all, and as soon as he took office, he ordered air raids on the British army to destroy the runway at the airfield in the northern Part of the Malay Peninsula, so that the British army lost its air superiority. The vigilance of the British Far East Sea Army was too poor, and the Far East Fleet, mainly the giant battleship Prince of Wales, was attacked by the Japanese 22nd Air Force in the kannai Sea in the eastern part of the Malay Peninsula, and the entire army was destroyed, and the British army lost its sea and air supremacy.
At this time, the situation in the Malay Peninsula was reversed, the morale of the Japanese was greatly boosted, and Yamashita Bongwen studied blitzkrieg when he studied in Germany, which finally came in handy this time.
200 95 light tanks were in front, and the Army's mobile units were following behind, but the Army lacked means of transport and the roads on the Malay Peninsula were not good. So what to do?
Yamashita Bongwen snatched more than 12,000 bicycles from the surrounding area, and the Japanese soldiers rode on it, greatly improving their weight-bearing ability, and rushed forward like crazy, defeating the British army one after another.
In this way, Yamashita Bongwen led a large army of bicycles to take the Malay Peninsula and surrounded Singapore. In fact, the Japanese army was also at the end of the crossbow at this time, but Yamashita Bongwen gave a death order, can not rest, the British are more tired than us.
By this time there were about 130,000 British troops in the city, almost frightened by the Japanese, and had struggled to hold on for two weeks. On February 15, 1942, the British commander surrendered to Yamashita Bongwen, and more than 120,000 people were taken prisoner. At this point, Yamashita Fengwen occupied the entire Malay Peninsula in only eight weeks and acquired the nickname of "Malay Tiger".
However, although he made great contributions, he was not favored by Hideyoshi Tojo and did not receive a promotion, but was relegated to the puppet state of Manchukuo, and did not participate in major battles.
Until 1944, when the defeat of the Japanese army was decided, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Fourteenth Front, went to the Philippines to direct the operation, and he was unable to return to the sky in the face of the American army, which had already occupied absolute superiority.
On September 3, 1945, this giant of the Japanese army walked out of the hidden jungle and surrendered to the Allies, and it was his defeated general Bai Sihua who was demoted. After signing, the beast that swept across the Malay Peninsula and Singapore became a trapped beast.
When he was tried, the American judge had long heard that Yamashita Fengwen had buried a large amount of gold in the Philippines, and tried every means to tell the truth, but Yamashita Fengwen just kept silent.
On February 23, 1946, Yamashita was hanged at Los Baños Prison, 30 kilometers east of Manila. Before dying, he said that "a person's nature is cultivated by his mother before going to school." My last words are to improve women's literacy and cultivate good mothers, and I have only this desire for Japan. ”
Although Yamashita Fengwen is dead, the story about him has always been circulated. During World War II, the Japanese army burned and looted in Southeast Asia, and the wealth looted from various countries is estimated to exceed 100 billion US dollars, including thousands of tons of gold, a large number of diamonds, jadeite, antiques and works of art.
As the Japanese army gradually retreated, the Japanese invaders knew that it was impossible to transport these treasures back to China, and could only bury them on the spot. Yamashita is said to have been the implementer of this plan.
Speculation has been made that he most likely buried the treasure in Fort Santiago in Manila, where Yamashita lived when he was stationed in the Philippines, and where the Japanese gendarmerie once lived.
While there is no direct evidence that the Japanese buried treasure in the Philippines, the domestic treasure hunt seems to say something. Treasure-digging operations were rife in the Philippines after World War II, including President Marcos. He had ordered excavations at 172 locations in the Philippines.
Although he didn't say what he was looking for, everyone on Earth knew that Marcos fell in 1986, ending his dictatorship.
According to the new government, Marcos was worth as much as $1 billion, and when he came to power in 1966, he owned only $50,000 in property. Marcos's wife said that the wealth came from the treasure buried by Yamashita Bongwen.
However, most people believe that this wealth is the result of Marcos's embezzlement, and his wife only says this to exonerate her husband. However, some people believe that this wealth does come in part from the treasure buried by the Japanese army.
On February 12, 1988, The International Precious Metals Corporation launched a treasure hunt with the permission of the Philippine government, but still found nothing. Even so, it has not affected the enthusiasm of Filipinos for the treasure under the mountain, and the search for treasure is still endless. Does this treasure really exist?
Many people now believe that according to Yamashita's position in the Japanese army, it is unlikely that he will be authorized to carry out such an important operation.
Moreover, in the case of the defeat and retreat of the Japanese army, how could there be time to organize such a large-scale treasure hiding operation without leaving a trace?
Perhaps the wealth seized by the Japanese army was not known as early as April 1, 1945, with the sinking of the Awa Maru oil tanker into the sea.