Yoshie Shiratori - The Man No Prison Could Hold

 by Jay Pasricha

An anti-hero in Japanese culture, Yoshie Shiratori (1907-79) is known as the “Jailbreak King of Showa”. Having broken out of prison on 4 separate occasions, I think this name is well deserved. Shiratori lived in the Aomori Prefecture in Japan and originally worked in a tofu shop and as a fisherman to catch crabs for Russia. Having struggled to find true success, he turned to gambling and stealing to make a living.

In 1936, Shiratori was incarcerated at Aomori prison after being accused of murder and robbery. This prison was constructed with the intention of lowering Japan’s scarily high prison-escape statistics. During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), prison escapes became the norm. These escapes reached a record high in 1881 when 1,821 prisoners were able to make successful getaways from incarceration. Shiratori spent his first three years languishing in Aomori prison, studying the guards’ routines and trying to figure out how he could escape. Eventually, he removed the metal wire from his bathing bucket and used it to pick the lock of his cell. Unfortunately, he was recaptured a mere 3 days later after being caught stealing supplies from a hospital.

Shiratori was then sentenced to life in prison for escaping and theft, and was transferred to Akita prison in 1942. In Akita prison, the cells were designed so that the only light came through a skylight in the extremely high ceiling. It’s probable that this design was intended to eliminate the risk of prisoners escaping through the window. In Shiratori’s instance, he used this to his advantage. Being an excellent climber, Shiratori was able to climb up the walls of the narrow cell as if it was a chimney in order to access the skylight. He learnt that the metal used to bar the skylight was gradually eroding away due to the rain falling down onto it. Every night, we would climb up the walls and loosen the barriers. The height of the window meant that no guard could see the damaged barriers so he avoided getting rumbled. Despite escaping through this damaged skylight, he was recaptured soon after.

Shiratori’s third escape is definitely his most imaginative. After being recaptured, he was transferred to Abashiri prison in Northern Hokkaido. This prison was famously reserved for the worst criminals in the whole of Japan. Following his previous escapes, he was put in reinforced shackles and imprisoned in a special cell without windows. For lunch, Abashiri prison provided its inhabitants with miso soup. Rather than eating the soup however, Shiratori would mysteriously spit the entirety of the soup onto the floor and the door of his cell. This didn’t seem especially suspicious to the guards as they assumed he was simply expressing how much he hated the prison and its food. However, Shiratori knew that the salt-rich miso soup would corrode and warp the metal on the small food hole in the door and the metal in his shackles. On 26th August 1944, during a wartime blackout, Shiratori executed his escape plan. He broke out of his shackles, dislocated both of his shoulders, and squeezed through the warped food slot in his cell door. He was, predictably, recaptured shortly after. Are you noticing a pattern?

For multiple escapes, and all of his previous crimes, Shiratori was sentenced to death by the Sapporo District Court. He was confined to a specially made cell in Sapporo Prison. This cell had been designed with all of Shiratori’s previous escapes in mind. There were no windows (not even a skylight), and the food slot was made smaller so that no human could fit through it. However, all of the focus on his previous escapes led to corners being cut elsewhere. The floor of his cell was left unreinforced. Not only that, but the prison guards were so proud of their newly built cell that they didn’t even bother handcuffing their prisoner. In 1947, Shiratori was able to remove the bolts that secured the wooden planks in his floor, and use a food bowl to dig his way to freedom.

Shiratori then spent approximately a year living in freedom. The next part of his story is, admittedly, something of a rumour. It is said that he was offered a cigarette by a police officer whilst sitting on a park bench. Moved by this act of kindness, Shiratori confessed that he was an escaped prisoner and allowed himself to be turned over by the officer. However, upon his trial, The High Court of Sapporo came to a favourable decision. They considered the ingenuity of his escapes, the fact that no one had to come any harm during any of his escapes, and the honourable way in which he turned himself in. They revoked his death sentence and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. They even approved his request to be imprisoned in Tokyo. Shiratori spent 14 years in Fuchu prison acting as the model prisoner and was eventually released for good behaviour in 1961.

He then returned to Aomori to reunite with his daughter and remained there for the remainder of his life. Yoshie Shiratori eventually died of a heart attack in 1979, aged 71. His remains were, allegedly, buried in a grave overlooking Mt. Fuji. He has been immortalised by a memorial in the Abashiri Prison Museum. The memorial contains a wax figure of Shiratori showing him as he escaped his cell in nothing but his underwear. For future reference, if you don’t want a scantily clad wax figure made out of you, avoiding going to (and escaping) prison in Japan.