Word: sasakawa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That view sat well with Ryoichi Sasakawa, 81, famous in Japan as a philanthropist and longtime prewar supporter of conservative causes, an accused war criminal who spent three years in jail after World War II, and a multimillionaire whose fortune was made by, among other things, staging hydroplane races on which eager Japanese bettors could wager. Sasakawa disclosed that he had sponsored the salvage ship Teno and its team of divers at a cost of $13.6 million. The ingots and whatever else was found were his, said Sasakawa, who estimated that treasure worth no less than $36 billion was aboard...
With that, Sasakawa unveiled a patriotic proposal: he would surrender the entire treasure to the Soviet Union in exchange for a group of islands off Hokkaido that the Soviets seized from Japan after World War II and have steadfastly refused to return. Promised Sasakawa, with a chuckle: "I'm ready to talk with whomever Brezhnev-san might send over to my office...