![]() There are various legends around what became of the loot, but the one that concerns us was popularised by the writer Sterling Seagrave. A rumour persisted that while in the Philippines Yamashita amassed a huge fortune in war loot, and this loot was hidden away somewhere in the islands. Yamashita was found guilty and hanged in 1946. At the end of the war Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrendered to the Allies, and was immediately charged with war crimes related to the deaths of Filipino civilians during the Japanese occupation, including the “Manila Massacre” where over 10,000 civilians were killed. The first appearance of Lansdale in the annals of conspiracy theorists is immediately following World War 2. ![]() It is here that we leave behind definitive reality and enter the realm of Lansdale’s legend. Once the war ended the OSS was broken up, and Lansdale (like many others) was sent to a remote posting, in his case in the Philippines. Due to his advertising experience he was pushed into the propaganda wing of the army, which was folded into the OSS later in the war. In 1941, when the USA entered World War 2, he applied for active service under his lieutenant’s commission. After he graduated in 1931 he got a job in advertising, a profession at which he excelled. He attended UCLA, where he earned money writing for newspapers and magazines as well as becoming a lieutenant in the US Reserves. His parents moved several times during his childhood, and he spent several years in New York before graduating from high school in California. But that’s the pool we’ll need to dive into, if we hope to understand Edward Lansdale.Įdward Geary Lansdale was born in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. Things become far murkier when we consider, for example, the role of the CIA in mid-20th century global politics. Everyone always has an axe to grind, but at least 15th century historians can be pretty sure that the Tudors are a less than reliable source for the history of the House of York. There, we have almost too many sources, and they all have an agenda we lack the distance to discern. The blurring when we look at more recent events is of a different character. But that’s to be expected – details aren’t recorded, sources go missing, evidence is misinterpreted and so on. ![]() ![]() Our sole source for a lot of early British traditions, for example, is the writings of the Romans who were conquering them. Sometimes looking into history is like being both short and long-sighted. ![]()
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