Show V yanks find huge japanese hoard gold and silver valued a at t gems at seized TOKYO searching for japanese war loot american troops have uncovered more than in gold and silver and diamonds weighing more than 90 pounds estimated in value at in the army and navy ministry alone in gold and silver was found it was disclosed by the raids that the japanese government had no knowledge of the gold and silver and that neither the army nor navy hs has made an accounting of expenditures to the government since 1937 the year of the invasion of china the hoards included ounces of gold and silve and coins ounces of platinum on which no value was set and japanese silver coins valued at yen at the occupation exchange rate of 15 to 1 all were seized by U S sixth and eighth army troops at imperial army headquarters the navy ministry building military arsenals in osaka and in the warehouses of precious metals companies surprise to japs greatest surprise to the japanese finance ministry was the discovery of huge stores of silver at the army and navy ministries the army held ounces of silver valued at the navy had ounces valued at the army held ounces of platinum in addition to the silver the navy had ounces of platinum and 42 ounces of gold bullion valued at 1463 we were astounded to learn that the army and navy had not reported any expenditures since 1937 declared an allied spokesman the finance ministry told us they had no reports of army and navy funds the finance ministry know either thearty th the army earmy or navy had a single ounce of precious metals the two services drew their money from a master account with the bank of japan and only they knew what became of it chief paymasters of the army and navy were from two to three years behind in their reports the headquarters spokesman said the hoard would be stored in the imperial mint and in bank of ja japan p an vaults it was seized suddenly to make sure specie reserves disappear he said A complete evaluation of the reserves will not be made for several days the spokesman said an exact evaluation was hampered because the japanese had dispersed bank records to avoid bomb damage diamonds worth the diamonds 90 pounds of them at jewelers wei weight 0 ht of 12 ounces to the pound were discovered in cheap quart thermos bottles in a safe deposit vault the gems largely government owned and many obtained through deceit of the japanese people are valued at more than the fortune in diamonds was found in the mitsui trust company compan vaults deposited in the name of a a japanese government import and export control agency many of the diamonds had been contributed by civilians who were told they were needed for industrial use obviously they were never used for that purpose possibly the gems were intended for use as trading material with germany and other nations had the war continued some of the gems probably were obtained abroad as the same type of campaign for them was conduct ed by the japanese overseas the same government control agency also had karats about 2212 pounds of diamonds in vaults at osaka considerable gold and nearly pounds of platinum in various parts of tokyo i |