Broken dreams, broken family: Abe gunman (Straits Times 2022-07-16)

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Broken dreams, broken family: Abe gunman

Tetsuya Yamagami is believed to have hatched his plan to assassinate Mr Shinzo Abe when he saw the video message given to the church (Unification Church)

Walter Sim

Straits Times 

Japan Correspondent

Published

16 July 2022

TOKYO - Tetsuya Yamagami, the gunman who now faces the death penalty for killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had broken dreams and a broken family.

His father committed suicide in 1984, when Yamagami was four years old. His mother, so sucked into the Unification Church, bankrupted herself after donating at least 100 million yen (S$1 million) - and kept giving.

Japanese police are now piecing together the puzzle of what led Yamagami, 41, to assassinate Abe on July 8, as the former premier was giving a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.

Yamagami's family had been relatively well-to-do, and he was the second of three children, local media reported, citing police sources and his 77-year-old uncle.

But the uncle added that the family's ability to lead a comfortable life - as well as Yamagami's own future - had been robbed by the Unification Church, which had "brainwashed" the mother.

The Unification Church, which is formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, was banned in Singapore in 1982 for breaking up families and is now famous for its mass weddings. Most of its donations reportedly come from Japan.

Yamagami told police that Abe was essentially a sacrificial lamb as he sought retributive justice against the church, for which heharboured a festering hatred for decades.

He had wanted to kill Unification Church leader Hak Ja Han Moon - widow of church founder Sun Myung Moon - but she had been unable to visit Japan due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yamagami also told police that he planned to detonate a bomb at an event in the central city of Nagoya, where Hak was making an appearance in 2019, but aborted the attempt as security was too tight.

"So I changed my target to the grandson of the man - former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi - who brought the Unification Church to Japan," Yamagami reportedly said.

Kishi's meetings with the late Dr Moon in the 1950s have been well-documented. Yamagami also told police that, in spring, he came upon a video message that Abe had given last year to the church's friendship group.

This convinced him of the former PM's ties with the church, he said.

Yamagami's father was a young promising upstart in Yoshizaki Construction, which was based in Osaka, said a report in the weekly tabloid Shukan Shincho.

He caught the eye of the company president, who introduced him to his daughter - now Yamagami's 69-year-old mother. They were a picture of bliss, living in a two-storey, self-constructed detached home in Osaka.

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But the tabloid said things first went awry after Yamagami's mother joined a fringe group called the Asaoki Kai, to the point of neglecting her children while her husband went to work.

While this has not been confirmed, the report cited neighbours and acquaintances as saying that rumours surrounding the mother's fixation with the fringe group was one reason behind Yamagami's father suffering a mental breakdown and committing suicide.

In the late 1980s, Yamagami's elder brother was diagnosed with cancer, leaving him blind in one eye.

While the Unification Church said at a news conference last week that Yamagami's mother joined in 1998, the uncle said that her involvement dates back to at least 1991, when she made her first donation of 50 million yen - including life insurance payouts from her husband's death and profits from the sale of land that the family owned.

"I think she was drawn into religion in shock because of her husband's suicide and the cancer diagnosis of her eldest child," the uncle said.

He noted how the children would call him for help whenever she left them at home alone without any food, making prolonged trips to South Korea where the church is headquartered.

"This was not just a case of neglect - it was far worse," he reportedly said. "She gave everything to the church and there was nothing left at home to eat."

Yamagami, despite it all, scored decent grades at school. He was the teacher's pet, often being called upon to answer questions in class, and managed to advance to an elite high school where most graduates would go on to top universities.

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While former schoolmates said he was socially awkward, he had an infectious energy that led him to become a key member of his school's cheerleading squad. He was also multi-talented, being good at basketball and art.

But 1998 was another turning point in his life, followingthe death of his grandfather. His mother inherited the construction company and at least one plot of land, which she reportedly sold for funds to donate to the church.

Financial woes mounted and cost Yamagami a place in university. He instead enrolled in vocational school and then joined the military Maritime Self-Defence Force in 2002.

Around the same time, his mother went bankrupt - and yet continued to give even more to the church, the uncle said.

By then, Yamagami was struggling with depression. In 2005, he was discharged from service after a failed suicide attempt.

"He believed that if he died, the payouts from a life insurance plan would help his elder brother and younger sister," the uncle said. "The mother was away in South Korea when it happened. I contacted her, but she did not return."

After leaving the force, he managed to obtain licenses to practise as a financial planner and real-estate transaction manager. But Yamagami was never able to hold job down, instead cycling through a series of contract work.

According to the church's account, it had refunded the sum of 50 million yen to Yamagami's mother over a period of 10 years ending September 2014.

But the Shukan Shincho said that it was the uncle that managed to help the three siblings to broker the return of 50 million yen from the church around 2009, though Yamagami's mother caught wind of this and promptly returned the money to the church.

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Disaster struck again around 2015, the uncle said, when Yamagami's elder brother killed himself.

Yamagami is believed to have hatched his plan to assassinate Abe that spring, when he first saw the video messageAbe gave to the church.

Neighbours reported strange sawing sounds from his apartment in April and May. At the same time, Yamagami, whose last job was as a forklift operator, began showing erratic behaviour at work.

Police said they found an "armoury of weapons" including at least five firearms - all handmade - at Yamagami's rented apartment after his arrest.

"For Tetsuya, it was not just about living, but a matter of life and death," the uncle said.

"He felt his life was stolen by the church, and I think he felt that the money going into the church was rightfully his."

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