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. P...