Japanese Gambling Figure Wins Gandhi Peace Award

A billionaire former war crimes suspect who made his fortune promoting motorboat gambling in Japan received the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Award today at a U.S. Embassy ceremony.

In receiving the award, Ryoichi Sasakawa, 88, joined the company of Mother Teresa, Philippine President Corazon Aquino and former President Jimmy Carter, the prize’s previous three winners.

The spry Sasakawa, who has donated $2.4 billion to charities around the world, is controversial at home. Many Japanese regard his money as unclean because it comes from his motorboat gambling enterprise.

For years Sasakawa has been unsuccessfully campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize. He owns the only private gambling concession in Japan and is chairman of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, through which most of his charitable donations are made.

Sasakawa said his philosophy is, “The world is one family. All mankind are brothers and sisters.”

Sasakawa is known in Japan by some as the “The Godfather” because of his alleged connections to gangsters. His reputation also is tainted by his connections to right-wing nationalist causes and alleged stock market manipulations.

Sasakawa was arrested by U.S. occupation forces as a suspected World War II criminal but was released after three years, an experience he has said gave him the determination to “work for world peace.”

His foundation has contributed large amounts to such causes as AIDS prevention, earthquake relief in Mexico, famine relief in Africa and the elimination of smallpox and leprosy.