was a Japanese national born in
Aomori Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...
. Shiratori is famous for having
escaped from prison four different times. There is a memorial to Shiratori at the
Abashiri Prison
is a prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido Prefecture that opened in 1890. The northernmost prison in Japan, it is located near the Abashiri River and east of Mount Tento. It holds inmates with sentences of less than ten years. Older parts of the pris ...
Museum.
There are numerous tales describing his escapes, but some details may be highly exaggerated rather than factual.
Early life
Yoshie Shiratori was born on July 31, 1907, in
Aomori
, officially Aomori City (, ), is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,945 in 136,781 households, and a population density of 321 people per squa ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. His father passed away when he was 2 years old, and he was abandoned at a young age by his mother. Initially, he worked in a
tofu
or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...
shop and later as a fisherman to obtain and catch crabs in Russia. After switching jobs several times and finding little success, he turned to gambling and robbery for a living.
Prison escapes
Aomori prison break

Shiratori was imprisoned at Aomori prison in 1936 for a
felony murder charge, and after studying the guards' routine for months, he escaped by picking his cell lock with the metal wire that was wrapped around the washroom's bucket provided for bathing and escaped through a cracked skylight.
Before escaping, he placed floorboards onto his
futon
A is a traditional Japanese style of bedding.
A complete futon set consists of a and a . Both elements of a futon bedding set are pliable enough to be folded and stored away in a large during the day. This allows a room to serve as a bedro ...
to fool the passing guards into thinking he was still asleep.
Akita prison break
Police recaptured Shiratori after three days whilst he was stealing supplies from a hospital. Sentenced to life in prison for escaping and attempted theft, he was transferred to
Akita prison in 1941.
At Akita prison, Shiratori was placed in a cell specially designed for escape artists, featuring high ceilings, one small
skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
O ...
, and smooth
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
walls. Nevertheless, Shiratori was able to scale the walls, and noticed that the wood holding the window bars was beginning to rot. Every night, he would climb up to loosen the vent, until he finally managed to pry away the wood and open the skylight. Knowing prison staff would be able to hear his footsteps on the roof, Shiratori waited until a stormy night to climb the walls and escape on June 14, 1942. Three months later, he showed up at the house of one of the guards to ask for help, as he was one of the only people who had shown kindness and respect to Shiratori during his stay in the Akita prison. However, the guard called the police and Shiratori was arrested and sent back to prison.
Abashiri prison break
During the winter of 1942/43, Shiratori was transferred to
Abashiri prison
is a prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido Prefecture that opened in 1890. The northernmost prison in Japan, it is located near the Abashiri River and east of Mount Tento. It holds inmates with sentences of less than ten years. Older parts of the pris ...
in Northern
Hokkaido
is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...
, the country’s northernmost prison. He was thrown into an open cell exposed to the extreme cold, allowing the guards to beat him down whenever he stood up. Later, he was placed in specially made handcuffs taking nearly two hours to unlock by a specialist who came once per week so that he could bathe. When the guards delivered meals however, he would drip
miso soup
is a traditional Japan, Japanese soup consisting of miso paste mixed with a ''dashi'' Stock (food), stock. It is commonly served as part of an meal, meaning "one soup, three dishes," a traditional Japanese meal structure that includes rice, sou ...
on the handcuffs and food slot, both of which eventually became corroded due to the salt content of the miso soup, allowing Shiratori to break them.
Then on August 26, 1944, he dislocated both of his shoulders, enabling him to fit out of the narrow food slot in his cell door and escaped the prison, using a
wartime blackout as cover.
After living in an
abandoned mine
''Abandoned Mine'', also known as ''The Mine'', is a 2012 horror film written and directed by Jeff Chamberlain. The film premiered in Sandy, Utah in September 2012 and had a limited release on August 15, 2013.
Plot
Five friends explore a suppo ...
deep in the mountains for two years, he descended to a nearby village, and learned of the
surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was Hirohito surrender broadcast, announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally Japanese Instrument of Surrender, signed on 2 September 1945, End of World War II in Asia, ending ...
. However, he was captured yet again after fatally stabbing a farmer who attacked him after he was caught stealing a tomato from his farm.
Sapporo prison break
For his previous escapes and the farmer's murder, Shiratori was
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
by the Sapporo District Court. At the Sapporo prison, he was placed in a specially designed cell with high ceilings and windows smaller than his head. However, due to the prison guards at Sapporo having so much faith in it that they no longer bothered to handcuff Shiratori, and that they paid so much attention towards his ceiling escapes, they neglected the floors.
In 1947, he dug his way out by making a tunnel with some of the miso soup bowls.
Final years
After a year of freedom, it is said that Shiratori was offered a
cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...
by a police officer in a park. Emotionally touched by the kindness, Shiratori admitted he was an escaped convict and offered to be turned in. He was arrested and tried once again, but the High Court of Sapporo, having reviewed his case, decided that the farmer's death was a result of acting in
self defense
Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in tim ...
. As a result, the court revoked his death sentence, instead sentencing him to 20 years for his escapes. Shiratori's request to be imprisoned in
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
was also granted, and he spent 14 years in
Fuchu Prison until December, 1961, when he was released on parole.
Later, he returned to Aomori to reunite with his daughter although they were not close. His wife had died while he was in prison. Shiratori lived for another decade working odd jobs to survive. He died after suffering a heart attack in 1979, at the age of 71.
In media
Akira Yoshimura
was an award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels ''Shipwrecks'' and ''On Parole (novel), On Parole''.
Life and work
Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a International PEN, PEN ...
's novel ''Hagoku'' is based on Shiratori's life.
The character Yoshitake Shiraishi in the manga ''
Golden Kamuy
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Satoru Noda. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Young Jump'' from August 2014 to April 2022, with its chapters collected in 31 volumes. The story follows Saich ...
'' by
Satoru Noda was revealed in an interview with the author to have been based on and named after Shiratori.
References
External links
''Hagoku''from Charm of Hokkaido
from MONSTERS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiratori, Yoshie
1907 births
1979 deaths
Escapees from Japanese detention
Fugitives
Japanese escapees
Japanese people convicted of murder
Japanese prisoners sentenced to death
Japanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
People convicted of murder by Japan
People from Aomori Prefecture
People paroled from death sentence
People paroled from life sentence
Prisoners sentenced to death by Japan
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Japan