In June 1936, Shiratori was asked by prison guards to clean up the feces in his cell. The errand was shunned by the other prisoners, but Shiratori gladly accepted. As he picked up the cleaning tools, he said to himself, "This might be an opportunity." ”
During the cleaning process, Shiratori's eyes never left the ground. Suddenly, he found a small piece of wire by the grass. He excitedly picked up the wire and whispered, "Great, that's what I want." ”
Since then, Shiratori has used the wind time every day to hide in the corner and practice lockpicking with that piece of wire. He silently read the steps in his mouth, and kept trying in his hands, sometimes frowning and thinking, sometimes showing a satisfied smile.
At the same time, he also noticed that patrol guards would have a short gap in the shift handover. He counted the time and silently calculated in his heart: "It's only 15 minutes, I have to hurry." ”
Shiratori Yuei, the name is a household name in Japan. The reason why he is famous is not because he has done anything earth-shattering, but because he has a special identity - a prison escape stranger.
In the hearts of the Japanese people, Yuei Shiratori is a legendary existence. They often say, "As long as Shiratori Yuei wants to leave, there is no prison that can hold him." ”
This is not an exaggeration at all. In just 11 years, Yuei Shiratori managed to escape four times in a high-security prison. Each time, he was able to escape in a way that others didn't expect.
He was born in Aomori Prefecture in 1907 to an ordinary family. As a young man, he was originally an energetic youth, but unfortunately, he contracted the vice of gambling.
He was deeply involved in gambling and couldn't extricate himself. The debt snowballed and weighed him down. In order to pay off his debts, he ended up on the path of stealing.
At the age of 26, he and a companion tried to steal from a small shop.
"Hurry up, don't get discovered!" he nervously urged his companion.
However, they were hit by the shopkeeper. In a fierce fight, he accidentally stabbed the shopkeeper to death. Looking at the shopkeeper lying in a pool of blood, he fled the scene in a panic.
Two years later, after hearing that his companion had been arrested for another theft, Shiratori chose to turn himself in and was escorted to Aomori Prison, where he began a life of misery.
The guards in the prison were all vicious. Every day, they would find all kinds of reasons to beat and humiliate him.
"You murderer, you still want to live?" a guard sneered at him, spitting in his face.
Shiratori endured silently, but the anger in his heart burned little by little. Four months later, he could no longer endure the humiliation. One night, he stared at the bars and swore in his heart, "I must escape, I must escape!"
He began to secretly observe the layout of the prison, looking for an escape opportunity.
Early one morning in 1936, when the sky was slightly bright, the phone at the Aomori Police Station suddenly rang sharply. The head of the criminal division quickly picked up the phone, but heard a piece of news that made him jaw-dropping: "Yuei Shiratori is gone!
When he arrived at the scene of the prison, the section chief saw that the cell door was wide open, and the lock was quietly hung on the door. He turned to the guards and asked, "Do you have the keys?" The guards nodded their heads with embarrassed and puzzled expressions.
"How is this possible?" muttered the section leader, his brow furrowed, his heart filled with confusion and anxiety.
In the days that followed, the entire Aomori was caught up in a hunt for Shiratori. The streets and alleys, mountains, forests and fields are full of police and search teams. It wasn't until the third day that a search team stumbled upon a white bird at the foot of the mountain. He was sitting on a rock, his face haggard, and he was obviously hungry.
"Why didn't you run away?" asked the search team curiously.
Shiratori glanced up at him and said weakly, "I'm too hungry to run." Just looking for something to eat. ”
A few years later, in June 1942, Shiratori staged another prison escape. This time he was more cunning and cautious, and the door to his cell remained locked, but the skylight was opened. The guards were once again struck by his wisdom and courage and did not know how he did it.
After escaping, Shiratori went directly to Kobayashi Ryozo, the director of Kosuge Prison. He stood in front of Kobayashi's door, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.
"Director Kobayashi, I'm Yuei Shiratori. When the door opened, he said calmly.
Xiao Lin looked at him in surprise: "Why are you here......?
"I escaped. Shiratori calmly interrupted him, "I'm here to ask you to help me deliver a message to the Ministry of Justice. The treatment in prison is simply too bad and needs to be improved. ”
Xiao Lin listened to his words, was silent for a while, and then said, "Although I don't completely agree with your approach, I can help you convey this message." However, you must go back with me and turn yourself in. ”
Shiratori nodded, "I know." I didn't escape to escape punishment, but to let more people know about the prison situation. I'm willing to go back and accept the punishment I deserve. ”
Finally, on April 23, 1943, Shiratori, accompanied by Kobayashi, went to the police station and turned himself in. This time, he was detained and transferred to Abashiri Prison in Hokkaido. His behavior has once again attracted widespread attention from society. Although he was sentenced to three more years on top of his life sentence, his goal appears to have been achieved.
But Amishiri Prison did not satisfy him.
Abashiri Prison is a notorious gate of hell for Japan's criminal community. The cold winter wind pierced every inch of the wall, and the temperature often plummeted to minus 30 degrees, as if even time had frozen in this biting cold.
In one of the dimly lit private rooms, the sound of chains accompanies Yuei Shiratori's every struggle. The twenty kilograms of handcuffs and shackles, like demonic chains, bound him firmly in this endless darkness. His summer prison uniform was tattered and his body was already scarred.
"When is the end of the day?" Shiratori Yuei whispered to himself.
He couldn't bear this kind of life, and he had only one thought in his heart: to escape, no matter what.
Day after day, Yuei Shiratori carefully poured the miso soup he saved every time he delivered the rice on the bolts. He knew full well that this was his only hope. In the dead of night, he could hear the sound of the bolt being corroded.
Finally, on the night of August 26, 1944, a loud bang pierced the silence of the prison. Shiratori Yuei broke the chain and escaped from the skylight known as Impenetrable.
"I'm free!" he roared, looking up to the sky.
However, freedom was not as easy as he thought. The police manhunt was like a net, leaving him with nowhere to hide. He could only hide in the mountains and forests.
One day, two years later, Yuei Shiratori ventured down the mountain and stole a newspaper. When he saw the news of Japan's defeat, a trace of mixed emotions flashed in his eyes.
"It's all over. He muttered softly.
He decided to turn himself in and end his fugitive career. However, fate played a joke on him again. On the way to turn himself in, he is mistaken for a thief who steals watermelons and gets into a conflict with the farmer. In desperation, he accidentally killed the farmer.
"I ...... I didn't mean to. I'm just trying to protect myself, so why are you sentencing me to death?" shouted Shiratori Yuei angrily, but everything was irreparable.
In February 1947, Shiratori was transferred to Sapporo Prison. In order to prevent him from escaping from prison again, the police can be described as desperate. 24-hour surveillance, daily body searches, and ward rounds, each time is almost harsh. The only time a week to take a shower, there are always four guards watching.
However, Shiratori did not give in. He's always looking for opportunities, looking for a silver lining.
In the early hours of April 1, the phone at the warden's house suddenly rang, shattering the silence of the night.
"What? Shiratori escaped from prison?" the warden was shocked.
When the warden arrived at the prison, he was dumbfounded by what he saw. On the floor of the single room where Shiratori was located, a sawn hole stood out about 50 centimeters deep. White Bird, he actually escaped from the cave like this.
"How did he do that?" muttered the warden.
Shiratori's prison break caused another uproar. The police launched a large-scale manhunt, but Shiratori disappeared as if it had evaporated from the world.
It wasn't until January 19, 1948 that Shiratori suddenly appeared at the police station in Koto-kiba and turned himself in. "I turned myself in. ”
But after this escape, his life in prison changed dramatically.
Shiratori's life in prison this time is a bit unbelievable, and he actually feels quite comfortable. Every day, someone delivers food on time, someone helps him massage and relax, and at night, his cellmates tell him stories and accompany him to sleep. Therefore, when there was an opportunity to reduce his sentence and be released from prison early, he actually refused, saying that he did not want to leave this "comfort nest".
Life in prison is a torment for others, but for Shiratori it is like a vacation. He enjoyed the feeling of being served, and even thought that the people here spoke very nicely and interestingly. However, the good times did not last long, and in 1961 he was forcibly kicked out of prison and was given the title of "model prisoner".
After being released from prison, Shiratori did not have a regular job, and mainly made money by selling his stories to the media. If you want to hear about his legacy, you have to pay for it. In this way, he continued to live a leisurely life until his death from myocardial infarction in 1979.
At the last moment of his life, he opened his mouth slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only closed his eyes weakly.
It turned out that Yuei Shiratori's thrilling and exciting prison escape experience, Yuei Shiratori's escape from prison brought a great shock to Japanese society. He is observant and analytical, always finding loopholes in prison management and then cleverly exploiting them to escape.
At the same time, his escape from prison has also exposed problems in prison management. Because of Yuei Shiratori's escape, the Japanese government had to re-examine the prison management system and carry out a series of reforms.
Today, Yuei Shiratori has been dead for many years, but his legend is still being told. He was hailed as Japan's "King of Prison Breaks" and became an immortal legend in Japanese history.
References: "The King of Japanese Prison Breaks, Escaping Like a "Bird" Many Times in 11 Years", "The Most Bullish Prison Escapee"