On a total sidetrack, I came to think of the saga of the infamous Japanese Second World War treasure supposedly left behind in a cave in Kanchanaburi. Why anybody ever paid any attention to that story, I couldn't understand. Why the myth wasn't buried the first time around, is totally incredible.
In late 1995, Senator Chaovarin Latthasakiri (from Ratchaburi) was behind a drive to get the Thai government to fund a search for the treasure. The search went on for two months before it was abandoned. Not a single ounce was found out of the purportedly up to 6.000 tons of gold hidden by the Imperial Japanese Army.
In 1996, the Senator tried to increase the price of his Jaguar when he put it up for auction pretending to be selling a vehicle owned by His Majesty the King.
Not being a person that gives up easily, Chaovarin Latthasakiri (by then a former deputy Minister of Education) again in early 1999 tried to drum up interest in a government-sponsored treasure hunt, but his drumming fell for deaf ears.
However, in April 2001, Chaovarin Latthasakiri presented to the Thai press (copies of) old US government bonds as well as rumors of 2,500 tons of gold (plus a steam locomotive) hidden in the Liijia Cave. This created such a stir that then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew to the cave's entrance to announce the government's backing of another treasure hunt.
Nobody wondered from where the Imperial Japanese Army would have gotten US government bonds and nobody questioned the denominations of the bonds. Each bond was valued between USD 50m and 100m - an incredibly large amount in the mid-1940s - i.e., in denominations that have never been used by the US Treasury.
Questions only arose after weeks of the Royal Thai Army searching turned up only dust.
Chaovarin Latthasakiri continued his political career as a avid supporter of Thaksin and is now a Member of Parliament for Phuea Thai Party.
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