Anyway, General Yamashita managed to conquer Malaya despite of the overwhelming British forces present in Malaya is because the British were completely disoriented about the war. Also, the Japanese army had already established a staging base from Indochina to support their invasion plus they had Thailand at their side. General Yamashita wasn't that half bad, probably one of the few reasonable guy in the IJA. During the Battle of Singapore, he ordered the officers that were involved to the Alexandra Hospital massacre be executed including the looters who were caught in the act, he also personally apologized to the patients that survived the massacre. But he was still alleged for war crimes.
Probably the most infamous atrocity that he was involved even though he has nothing to do with it was the Manila Massacre. Before the Americans landed in Luzon, Yamashita already ordered that Manila to be declare as an open city and proceed further north, he established his headquarters at Baguio. But Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji (Kirishima's former captain) from the IJN disobeyed General Yamashita and ordered to defend Manila to the last man just to make up for his lost during the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Rear Admiral Iwabuchi's stubborn resistance resulted to the Battle of Manila, the fighting lasted for a month which had the entire city burned to the ground with about a hundred thousands civilian casualties. After the fight Rear Admiral Sanji committed suicide and since he is gone, all the blames went to General Yamashita instead which he was trialled (controversially) and executed for it afterwards.
Anyway back to the spoil, it was rumored all the golds General Yamashita gained from his campaign were concentrated in Singapore then it was transported to the Philippines but General Yamashita was transferred to Manchukuo from Singapore on July 17, 1942. General Yamashita transferred to the Philippines on October 10, 1944, ten days before the Americans landed in Leyte. But it was said that the wealth of this guy came from those treasure.
