Ryoichi Sasakawa; Billionaire, Philanthropist

Ryoichi Sasakawa, 96, Japanese billionaire and philanthropist who was accused of war crimes during World War II. Twice nominated for a Nobel Prize because of his charity, Sasakawa made his money with a legal gambling empire. A rightist, he formed and led the Patriotic Masses Party in 1931 after his discharge from the former Japanese Imperial Army. He formed his own private air force and in 1939 flew one of his 20 bombers to Rome to pose for pictures with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1942, Sasakawa served in Japan’s lower house of Parliament. After the war, he was imprisoned for four years by U.S. occupation forces. But war crimes prosecutors failed to prove him guilty of helping finance and wage the war or of profiting from Japan’s wartime occupation of Manchuria. In later years, he often used charitable donations to befriend U.S. presidents in an attempt to mask his unsavory political history. On Tuesday in Tokyo of a heart attack.