The Imperial Japanese Army and its various confederates did plunder hordes of gold and treasure and goods from Asia. Whether they moved the spoils to the Philippines and buried them in underground caves and shelters is disputed. The topic has become known as “Yamashita’s Gold,” named after the top Japanese general defending the isles from General Douglas MacArthur’s storied return. The clearest and strongest substantiation of the plundering and how it was used once in American hands comes from historians Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, who wrote two books that ask many good questions: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan’s Imperial Family (2000); and Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold (2003). My portrayal of the Japanese Golden Lily program comes mostly from these works.

The ensuing mystery of how the loot has been both exploited and hunted is a compelling story in itself. The Seagraves connect real-life persons to the liberation and commandeering of the plunder. Among them are Japanese gangster Yoshio Kodama and shadowy American intelligence operative Edward G. Lansdale, both of whom appear in this novel.

Edward Lansdale was an enterprising and legendary figure who firmly believed in American exceptionalism and was supposedly the model for Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. Lansdale has been described as being responsible for everything from America’s involvement in the Vietnam War to the Kennedy assassination, depending on the angle. While operating in the Philippines, Lansdale worked to prop up his own man for president, one Ramon Magsaysay, whom Lansdale and the CIA helped in defeating opposing Communist rebels. In the mid-1950s, Lansdale took his road show to Vietnam, and on and on.

I portray these players filtered through a writer’s lens, of course. Where I put them in this book is purely notional. Kodama was in a US military prison during much of the period in this novel—I let him out briefly so he could do what my schemers needed him to do.

As for General Douglas MacArthur, the Seagraves contend that the general visited treasure sites in the Philippines after Lansdale reported them to MacArthur’s Tokyo HQ.