February 24th 1979 The Death of a Japanese anti-hero

 

On February 24th 1979 Yoshie Shiratori died at age 71. Yoshie had led an exciting life by most people's standards and was known as The Japanese Houdini. 

Born on the 31st of July 1907, Shiratori was born on the Japanese mainland. As a teenager he took on odd jobs working on farms, in a tofu shop and also as a fisherman catching crab, none of these jobs paid particularly well and Shiratori found himself wanting an easier life, or perhaps he just wanted to be more wealthy. He found himself sucked into a life of gambling and stealing. During an attempted mugging in 1936 Shiratori accidentally killed his victim in the commotion. He was arrested for the crimes and detained in Aomori prison while his sentence was pending. 

Recently in Japan, senior citizens have been committing crimes in order to land themselves in prison for the good health care, meals and living conditions, unfortunately for Yoshie Shiratori, prisons in Japan in the 1930s were not a desirable place to be. Prisoners were put to work for daylight hours and were subject to beatings and torture from the staff. While Yoshie was physically quite strong the beatings from the guards were becoming more and more unbearable as time went on. 

Convinced that when his sentence was handed down, he would be a dead man as murderers in the 1930s in Japan would very rarely have their own lives spared having taken that of another. 

He started studying the routines of the guards and timing how long it would take for them to do a full lap on patrol, 15 minutes is all he would have. One morning, just after 5.30 am the guard passed his cell, Yoshie used some clothing to make it appear he was in bed and using a piece of metal wire he had obtained from a wooden bath bucket, he picked the lock to his cell and the remaining five doors to the way out to the entrance gate of the prison. 15 minutes later at 5.45 am, Yoshie was a free man. 

After only three days Yoshie was apprehended while trying to steal medical supplies and food from a local hospital. The charges for the prison break were added to the existing charges for robbery and murder. Yoshie was sent to Akita, which was known for having a much more secure prison. He was housed in a cell big enough for one person to lie down in, he was forced to sleep on a concrete floor with no bedding and when he was not working, his hands were cuffed. The walls of the cell were made of smooth copper, all the way up to a high ceiling with a single ventilation window that was protected by steel rods. 

On a June night in 1942 a guard came to Yoshie's cell and was shocked to see that he was no longer there. 

Yoshie had started planning his break for freedom months earlier. Every night for the past 8 months he had used a piece of wire to take off his handcuffs and practice climbing his way up the walls to the ventilation window in the ceiling and every night he put his cuffs back on until he felt the timing was right to make his escape. Yoshie spent 6 years in Akita prison. 

Three months later a prison guard, Kobayashi, got a knock on his door in the middle of the night. He was shocked to find Yoshie Shiratori standing on his door step. Kobayashi was the one guard from Yoshie's two prison stints he felt had shown him any humanity or compassion. He apologised his his escaping and explained he had done it as a way of rebelling against the terrible conditions and treatment from guards that prisoners were subjected to. Unfortunately, the police were called by Kobayashi and they arrested Yoshie for the third time. 

This time Yoshie was sent to Abashiri prison and his sentence was extended by a further three years.  

Abashiri prison was situated in Hokkaido, which is the most northern of the main Japanese islands. Winters are harsh in the northern climate and snow falls through most of the winter, even summers are known for sub-zero temperatures. Abashiri prison was well known as an extremely secure location, so the guards felt confident that they had the upper hand on Yoshie and they would mock and beat him to establish their authority over him. One day, Yoshie lost it! He snapped his handcuffs off in front of the guards and told them all that he would escape again. Slightly concerned by the strength Yoshie had displayed in breaking the cuffs, they decided that they were taking no chances, they ordered special cuffs for his arms and legs. Each of the cuffs weighted a reported 20kgs. These cuffs had no keyhole and required a blacksmith to open them, to open each cuff would take 2 hours and Yoshie's hands were now cuffed behind his back rather than in front. He was forced to eat straight from a bowl like a dog and was permitted to shower once a month when the blacksmith would remove the cuffs. 

Once again, Yoshie started planning. 

He used soap to make chains attached to the cuffs on his hands and legs weaker. He used soup which he was given to eat to help rust part of the window frame. Once the chains were weak enough to break, he knew he had to leave before his monthly bath where the blacksmith would examine the condition of his chains. 

He waited until the next stormy night hoping the weather would help hide his footprints. He made his move, he broke the chains, he removed the frame of the window, squeezed through it by dislocating his joints and made his escape up onto the roof. A guard heard a bang on the roof and was shocked to find that not only was Yoshie gone, his special made cuffs were gone with him. 

The prison started an elaborate search of the surrounding areas but no sign of Yoshie was found. Due to the freezing conditions, wild animals and the fact he still had the cuffs on, the prison called off the search and assumed he had perished.

For two years Yoshie Shiratori hid out in a cave, surviving on berries he foraged in the local forest and hunting small animals. After two years, he decided it was time to come out of hiding and made his way to Sapporo. It was now 1945, he learned about the loss of the war, the atomic bombs and the loss of the war through newspapers he found. He couldn't believe how much things had changed while he had been gone. 

During this time Yoshie still had no money and supplies were limited for a man on the run, on one particular afternoon he found a farm and was so tempted by the produce, he ventured over to steal some of the fresh veg. The farmer, as luck would have it, caught Yoshie in the act. He struck Yoshie on the back of the head with a shovel and a fight broke out between the two men. Once again, Yoshie found himself with a dead body, the result of his doing. He was captured by locals when he tried to flee and poor Yoshie, once again found himself behind bars, this time in Sapporo. 

The judge had taken into account Yoshie's previous convictions, his history of prison breaks and the general mockery he had made of the prison system in Japan. He was given the death sentence this time. There would be a constant vigil of six officers outside his cell watching at all times. This time Yoshie was given a mattress and bedding. He was kept in a small cell with high ceilings, the window was barely the size of a human head. There would be no escape. Yoshie slept long into the afternoons and the guards used to beat him for sleeping to late, this was by far much better treatment than Yoshie was used to receiving while in prison.

One late afternoon, the guards were once again horrified to find Yoshie was missing from his cell. The door locked from the inside, the window intact. Everything looked as it should until they moved the mattress which was on the floor, this time Yoshie had dug his way out of prison. 

A year later in a park Yoshie was sitting on a park bench when a high ranking police officer came and sat next to him on the bench. The officer, didn't pass much attention on Yoshie until he took out his cigarettes, casually he offered one to Yoshie. At the time in Japan, cigarettes were a luxury item that only the rich could afford. Yoshie accepted the cigarette from the officer. As he was smoking the cigarette Yoshie claims to have thought about the abuse and torture he endured while in prison. He was suddenly humbled by the kindness of this stranger and a feeling of guilt overcame him. 

For some reason, Yoshie decided to finish his cigarette and confess who he was to the officer. By this stage, the name Yoshie Shiratori was a very well known name by law enforcement in Japan. The officer questioned his motives for revealing his identity and Yoshie told him that he was tired of running and leading a solitary life. The officer then asked why Yoshie had confessed to him in particular and Yoshie explained that he had been overcome by the kindness the officer had shown. The officer listened to the stories about the brutal beatings and the inhumane way prisoners are treated and he made Yoshie a promise to help him. 

True to his word the officer did appeal to the courts on Yoshie's behalf. He was pardoned for the murder of the farmer as it was a result of self defence and had his previous death sentence overturned. As a result the court ruled that he should serve 20 years in prison. He was sent to a prison in Tokyo. The prison in Tokyo was warm and more important, the guards were far more respectful of prisoners than they had been in the previous four prisons. After serving 14 years of the 20 year sentence, Yoshie was released a free man in 1961. Although he was now in his 50s, he had finally gotten his freedom. 

He moved to Aomori, where his family lived. Between the years of 1961 and 1979, Yoshie lived with his daughter where he got to tell his story. He died at aged 71 on February 24th 1979 from a heart attack. 

Although he made a mockery of the prison system in Japan, he did explain afterwards that he understood that he needed to pay for his crimes, what he did not want to deal with was the abuse and disrespect that the guards treated the prisoners with. He wanted prisoners to be treated as human beings, he wanted basic human rights for prisoners. It is largely due to the actions of Yoshie Shiratori that the prison system in Japan underwent a massive reform. Guards were given appropriate training for dealing with prisoners and prisoners were given better living conditions.

In my opinion, there was probably a massive culture shock for Yoshie when he first went to prison. Japanese culture always has a stereotype of politeness and respect towards others. While Yoshie had the ability to escape, I believe he chose not to escape from the prison in Tokyo when he found that prisoners were being treated as convicts but in a respectful way rather than being abused and tortured as show of strength.