A former student at an elite high school thought nothing about the name of the suspected gunman who killed Shinzo Abe when it was released to the public on July 8.

But within a few hours, news media were seeking quotes and interviews from the former student.

The name of the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, finally clicked. They had been in the same class more than 20 years ago at the elite high school in Nara Prefecture.

“How is this possible?” the person said. “He was such a good guy.”

Those who knew Yamagami in his high school days have similar descriptions of him: He was a bit shy, somewhat awkward, but was a nice and considerate person.

They also said Yamagami revealed very little about his troubled home life, which is believed to have led in part to his shooting of the former prime minister.

“He often put his hands on his desk, leaned his chin on them and gawked,” said the person who shared a class with Yamagami when they were in their second year.

Yamagami seemed to prefer to be alone. But he would flash a happy grin whenever the classmate spoke to him, smile “OK” to agree with the classmate’s decisions, and was always humble and considerate, the former student said.

“He was a type of person who would accept anything.”

Yamagami was a member of the school’s “ouendan,” a cheering pep squad, and became known for screaming at full volume on both hot and cold days.

“Throughout the year, they did vocal exercises and training to strengthen their abdominal muscles until nightfall,” the former classmate said.

The school’s baseball team was talented enough to compete in the national tournament in spring.

Yamagami cheered as loud as possible in the stands of Hanshin Koshien Stadium, the former classmate recalled.

ASPIRING FIREFIGHTER

The prefectural high school not only had a competitive baseball team, but it was also considered academically elite because a high proportion of its graduates were accepted at high-ranking universities.

But the former classmate and Yamagami shared a sense of “mediocrity,” saying stuff like, “Studying is hard” and “I feel lazy.”

Yamagami consistently expressed a desire to become a firefighter instead of entering a university after graduation, so it was not surprising that he had joined the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the former classmate said.

“I guess he chose an occupation in which he could be of use to society,” the person said.

When they entered the third year of high school, they were in different classes and didn’t have many opportunities to converse.

After graduation, they lost touch with each other.

According to investigative sources, Yamagami said his mother’s large donations to a religious group after her husband’s death led to the financial ruin of the family.

He said he targeted Abe on the belief that he was closely connected to the group, the sources said.

The former classmate said Yamagami never talked about living in dire poverty during high school.

But such a home life could explain why the shy student joined the cheering pep squad.

“I thought it was out of character,” the former classmate said of his extracurricular activity. “Maybe he was troubled over his family background and was trying to cheer up himself and others around him.”

NICKNAMED ‘LEADER’

Another former high school classmate said Yamagami was nicknamed “dancho” (leader) of the cheering pep squad, even though he was not one.

The former classmate, now 41, said she was in the same class with Yamagami when they were in the third year.

She remembers Yamagami building up his body ahead of a national baseball tournament in spring.

“The cheering squad was famous for its hard training,” she said. “They had training runs and strength exercises just like the athletes.”

The woman said Yamagami was the type of person who took his own time, and that he was a serious student who often read books alone.

But Yamagami was not a loner.

She said classmates would beg Yamagami to show them how to strike poses like members of the cheering pep squad.

Despite his shyness, he would teach them the poses during recess, she recalled.

The school’s baseball club advanced to the quarterfinals of the national tournament and played against Yokohama High School, whose lineup included future major league star Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Yokohama won the game, but Yamagami “was cool,” she said. He kept waving his arms in full swing and thrusting his fists in the air at the stadium.

She never saw Yamagami after they graduated from the high school.

Only after Abe’s death did she learn about Yamagami’s personal life and hardships.

She said she did not know that his father died or that his mother joined the Unification Church. She also was unaware of the family’s financial problems and that Yamagami, unlike most of the students at the high school, did not enter a university.

She was also disheartened to hear that Yamagami struggled to keep stable employment and that he had recently been jobless.

“Was he lonely?” she said she keeps wondering now. “Could something have been done before this happened?”

(This article was written by Misuzu Tsukue and Shunsuke Abe.)