GOLD FOR THE RISING SUN

It is early 1944. Allied aircraft attack a Japanese ship sailing from Tianjin, China, bound for the Philippines. The ship, carrying a small part of the 6,000 tons of gold looted by Japanese forces from Nanking, limps into Qinhuangdao on the east coast of China. A small Japanese military detachment transports the gold to an ancient unfinished tomb buried under a landslide. There, at bayonet point, they force Chinese peasants to dig through to the tomb and carry the gold deep inside the mountain. Explosives are detonated, bringing down yet another landslide to hide the tomb until the Japanese ruling class can return to collect the looted wealth for their emperor. Sergeant Ichiro writes to his father from a battlefield later that year, telling him of the gold bullion, the silver and gold statues, the jewels, and other precious items stolen from museums, temples, churches, banks and private collections by the soldiers from the Land of the Rising Sun. But that letter never reaches Ichiro’s father. It remains hidden and forgotten until the strands of destiny weave themselves together seventy-one years later, drawing a young Australian and his part-Japanese girlfriend into the death and wealth which awaits the finder of the forgotten tomb.