In 1984, Abashiri Prison in Hokkaido, Japan, was announced to be a prison museum, and for a time there was a trend of people visiting the prison, and the reason why Abashiri Prison was chosen was not only because of its geographical location, but also because such a prison has produced two famous prison escapees. The museum regards them as "typical" and sets up statues of the two directly in the museum.
Although it is said that flies can't fly out, after experiencing the "baptism" of two prison escapees, the prison still has firm confidence to change into a museum, and one of the two has an unprecedented escape king, Yuei Shiratori's record, which is particularly incredible.
And his story was also adapted into a novel by writer Akira Yoshimura, and then adapted into the TV series of the same name in 2017 by Sakuma, which quickly attracted a large number of viewers after being broadcast on TV Tokyo in Japan, and became the TV Tokyo TV drama ratings champion that year.
Lived like a dog, so he escaped from prison
Shiratori Yuei was born in Aomori Prefecture, Japan in 1907, and lived a very poor life when he was young, and after losing his father at the age of 2, his mother remarried, and did not take him away, but was adopted by relatives who opened a tofu shop. Without his parents by his side, it is naturally difficult for him to be well disciplined, so he has made some bad friends in society and has also been tainted with a lot of bad habits.
Although he is strong, agile, and powerful, especially his unique stunt - "Bone Shrinking Skill", which made him famous in the circle of friends, he did not seek a serious job, but mixed with the so-called friends in society every day. Petty theft is a common occurrence.
In April 1933, Shiratori and his companions burglarized as usual, but this time they were a little "back", and they happened to be bumped into by the owner who went home early, and the two sides scuffled, killing the owner in the chaos, and it was the first time he saw such a scene, and his instinctive first reaction was to abscond with his companions in fear of crime.
Two years later, Shiratori was so sad to learn that his companion had been captured by the police, and he decided to go to the police to turn himself in with his companion, after all, he couldn't let his companion suffer alone, so they were imprisoned in the Aomori Prefectural Prison.
The first time he went to prison, "he was simple" and thought it would be good to simply sit in the cell and think about it. What subverted his perception was that because he did not bribe the prison guards, he was locked up in a small black room, and all the eating, drinking, and Lazar were carried out in this dark and damp little black room, and not only that, but he was also severely beaten and insulted by the prison guards and other prisoners.
The days when the prisoners with poor economic conditions lived worse than dogs, which made Shiratori germ the idea of escaping. So he began to observe the shift time of the prison guards, and using his innate sharp ear, he could judge who was on duty today by the sound of walking footsteps, and then it took him ten days to figure out when the prison guards arrived at the cell and the 15-minute shift time before he began to plan.
In order to obtain the shape of the keyhole, Shiratori took advantage of the bath time to soak his hands softly, felt the shape of the keyhole with his fingers through the small window where the rice was delivered, and then made a key from the wire removed from the toilet bowl to open the cell door. Because Japan in the 40s of the 20th century was gradually falling into the quagmire of war, in order to support the front-line operations, Japan was also looted and the drip of oil was missing, so the expenses and management in the prison were relatively weak, and Shiratori's self-made key successfully opened the cell and the other three doors of the prison and successfully escaped.
The white bird, like a bird in flight, was very excited to regain its freedom and began a new round of escape. However, while fleeing to avoid crowded villages and cities, the white birds in the countryside are hungry, so he runs to the cemetery to forage for food, and is reported by local villagers and captured.
In order to prevent him from escaping again, Shiratori, who was captured, was sentenced to life imprisonment and transferred to Tokyo Prison.
I would like to live in a Tokyo prison for a long time
Shiratori, who came to Tokyo Prison in April 1937, felt the warmth from the prison for the first time, it was no longer a dark and cold world, people were very friendly to each other, there was no bullying, there was no abuse of prisoners, and the prisoners were equal, especially the Tokyo Prison Warden Kobayashi Yoshizo, who treated people in a generous way, made Shiratori very impressed, and he also served as the head of the group in the prison, and at the same time gave him a plan to plan here for the rest of his life.
However, the Pacific War broke out, and Tokyo Prison was forced to transfer prisoners to other prisons. Shiratori and others were transferred to Akita Prison, and because of Shiratori's escape, the warden of Aomori Prison was demoted and transferred to the remote Akita Prison.
The warden put Shiratori in Class A custody and locked him in a "sedation room" for the most aggressive and rebellious prisoners, with only a small iron window at the top, and the walls were all made of polished stones, and he slept only on a cement bed poured on the ground. At the same time, it is almost impossible to escape from prison with the persistence of Miegang.
In the face of such unfair treatment, Shiratori did not resist at first, and his obedience made many prison officials begin to believe that he should not escape from prison again. However, the warden still underestimated Shiratori because he only liked Tokyo Prison.
So from the first day he was imprisoned, Shiratori had already begun to plan how to escape, using the small stones he picked up when he was released to grind out different small pits on the walls of the cell, so that he could easily climb to the top of the cell, and luckily he happened to run into the prison's "calm room" that was in disrepair, so it was easy to break the iron fence of the skylight, use the bone shrinking power to drill out, and then with the help of a log in the prison, climb the 5-meter-high outer wall to escape.
After escaping from prison, he did not choose to hide, but immediately approached the former warden of Tokyo Prison, Kobayashi Ryozo, to complain about the "unfair treatment" of the warden and guards of Akita Prison, and asked for help to transfer him to other prisons to improve his situation.
Seeing that Shiratori found himself on foot after escaping from prison, he politely told that Kobayashi Liang was very sympathetic, and after dialing the phone, he tried to communicate, but it backfired, and Shiratori was arrested and imprisoned again, adding another 3 years to the original life sentence, and at the same time was transferred to Hokkaido Abashiri Prison, where the natural environment was more cruel.
Open the 20 kg handcuffs and leg irons with miso broth
In addition to the humiliating and inhumane treatment he received from before, in order to prevent him from escaping, the prison also put him in 20 kilogram handcuffs and leg irons, denied him normal meals, and was not allowed to exercise.
Not long after moving in, Shiratori was already emaciated, and the prison guards felt that Shiratori would give up escaping from prison in this way. However, the truth is that these may be obstacles in the eyes of ordinary people, but they are not a problem at all in the eyes of Shiratori. Although he ate less, he ate miso soup, which was rich in salt, and he insisted on using this salt every day to sprinkle the bolts of the handcuffs and shackles, allowing time to help gradually corrode the bolts, until one day eight months later, the handcuffs and shackles were completely loose.
After untying the handcuffs and shackles, he climbed out of the skylight, although the skylight was reinforced, but it still did not bother Shiratori, he quickly climbed out, pulled out the two logs used to support the prison boiler room, climbed the wall and flew away, and disappeared from the public's view.
Just when everyone thought that Shiratori would not appear again, on August 14, 1946, the news of Japan's defeat came, and Shiratori, who lived in the mountains and forests, learned the news of Japan's defeat and surrender, thinking that he might forgive the prisoners, so he decided to go down the mountain to surrender, but when he passed by the melon field on the way, he was misunderstood and stolen by the melon farmer, so he was beaten, and Shiratori, who could not bear such an insult, killed the melon farmer in self-defense and was arrested.
During the trial stage, it was obviously an act of self-defense, but after seeing the "record" of his previous escape, the court did not believe it at all, but directly put him in Sapporo Prison and sentenced him to death.
In the face of Shiratori after the fourth imprisonment, even while waiting for the execution of the execution, the attitude given by the prison side is more severe and intensified, they do not realize that Shiratori's previous escapes are because of the inhumanity of the prison, the more cruel Shiratori will flee, and each time it will be more unexpected.
After Shiratori was imprisoned, he would inadvertently look up at the skylight every day, and his every action made the prison guards begin to become sensitive, and began to strengthen the skylight, and began to send more manpower, but in fact, Shiratori realized that the bottom of the bed was very soft soil when he entered the prison, so he used the rice basin to start digging some every day, digging a 50-centimeter hole in the ground and escaping.
A year after the disappearance of Shiratori, who successfully escaped from prison, a police officer saw a homeless man on the side of the road with a very suspicious bag, and after a routine interrogation, Shiratori casually asked "Is there a cigarette?", the kind policeman directly took out a cigarette to Shiratori, and he was very moved to surrender directly to the police and said that he was the Shiratori Yuei who had repeatedly escaped from prison.
Many people find it hard to believe, is it that simple? Yes, it's that simple, a cigarette made him feel the warmth of justice, and he really turned himself in. Although he didn't know if there was still a temperature in the prison waiting for him.
And this time Shiratori gambled right, because his deeds caused a sensation throughout Japan through the media, and all parties began to pay attention to him, and finally his killing of melon farmers was recognized as self-defense, and his sentence was changed to 20 years.
The prison was also relocated to Fuchu Prison in Tokyo, where he received humane treatment, no more beatings and insults, and the attitude of the prison guards was greatly improved.
After feeling the warmth of the prison, Shiratori strengthened his heart to serve his sentence and spent his time in Fuchu Prison with peace of mind, during which his sentence was reduced to 14 years for good behavior.
He moved to Tokyo and got a job in a lock factory, which was the normal life he had always hoped for, with a job he liked, a free life, and social relations that treated him equally.
In this way, until 1979, at the age of 72, he was taken to a Tokyo hospital by ambulance due to myocardial infarction, and died after rescue efforts failed.
After his death, Japanese novelist Akira Yoshimura was traveling to the ruins of Sannai Maruyama in Shiratori's hometown of Aomori Prefecture when he heard Shiratori's story and was inspired to write the popular best-selling novel "Prison Break", which was later turned into a TV series.
Write at the end:
Shiratori, who is guilty of his own crimes, chooses to turn himself in for different reasons every time he escapes from prison, and it is because of his surrender that everyone begins to pay attention to it, or is afraid. Some people say that he is kind, because a little warmth is enough to make him turn himself in, but don't forget that he is a criminal himself and has a blood debt on his hands.
Although he was dissatisfied with the imperfect regulatory system, he did not understand the unfair legal sanctions. Burdened with the guilt, he realizes his mistakes, and just needs a prison where he can serve his sentence quietly, not a prison without humanity and human rights, a fair system. So in the face of injustice, Shiratori instinctively wants to escape from the cage.