It’s 1945, and the battle for Luzon is over. Under the forest, the fabled Yamashita treasure lies concealed. To the victors go the spoils. Or do they? Back in Tokyo, Toshio Hamazaki is ruthlessly determined to use this war loot to build his dream: the business empire Mabuhay. He surrounds himself with a few equally unscrupulous characters who will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Told over a period of three decades,this story of the group’s sinister, methodical quest, driven by greed and depravity- and the unseen suffering left in their wake - traces a journey of intrigue from Tokyo to the slums of Manila to Washington, D.C., to the Luzon jungle. Meanwhile, individual men and women are left with heartbreaking loss and the frustration of trying to follow the men’ maddeningly elusive trail.
Did postwar industrialists in fact benefit from stolen wealth? It’s a question that lingers to this day.
