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cojoel

(1,021 posts)
4. This supposedly happened in 1999
Sat Jan 17, 2026, 03:28 PM
Jan 17
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-883627

In 1999, Ellison, then No. 23 on Forbes’ billionaires list, well on his way to his No. 4 ranking today, purchased a boat called Izanami.

Originally built for a Japanese businessman, the 191-foot superyacht was named for a Shinto deity. But Ellison soon realized what the name read backwards: “I’m a Nazi.”

“Izanami and Izanagi are the names of the two Shinto deities that gave birth to the Japanese islands, or so legend has it,” Ellison said in “Softwar,” a 2013 biography. “When the local newspapers started pointing out that Izanami was ‘I’m a Nazi’ spelled backward, I had the choice of explaining Shintoism to the reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle or changing the name of the boat.” He renamed the boat Ronin and later sold it.

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