A runaway prisoner arrested Monday in Hiroshima after 22 days at large was nicknamed "Lupin" during his school days for the speed he displayed during games of tag, The Yomiuri Shimbun has leaned.
Tatsuma Hirao, who fled from a prison workshop in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, on April 8, came from Fukuoka Prefecture, and went to primary school and junior high school there.
A former classmate said fleet-footed Hirao was difficult to catch in tag, so he earned the nickname "Lupin," referring to the title character in novels, manga and anime about a gentleman thief.
Following his escape, the Hiroshima and Ehime prefectural police mobilized about 15,000 officers, many of them dispatched to Mukaishima island in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. Mukaishima is part of a series of islands connecting the two prefectures. Hirao is believed to have swum across the channel that separates Mukaishima from Honshu.
According to the Onomichi Coast Guard Office, a gentle tidal current of about 0.7 to 1.5 kph was observed in the channel from 10 p.m. on April 24 through midnight. The shortest distance between the island and Honshu is about 200 meters.
"I assume a good swimmer can swim to the opposite shore despite being pushed by the tide," an official at the coast guard office said.
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