[7] At Akita prison, Shiratori was placed in a cell specially designed for escape artists, featuring high ceilings, one small skylight, and smooth copper walls.

Knowing prison staff would be able to hear his footsteps on the roof[better source needed], Shiratori waited until a stormy night to climb the walls and escape on June 14, 1942.

When the guards delivered meals however, he would drip miso soup on the handcuffs and food slot, both of which eventually became corroded, allowing Shiratori to break them[6].

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.

[9] After living in an abandoned mine deep in the mountains for two years, he descended to a nearby village, and learned of the surrender of Japan.

However, due to the prison guards at Sapporo having so much faith in it that they no longer bothered to handcuff Shiratori[better source needed], and that they paid so much attention towards his ceiling escapes, they neglected the floors.

Shiratori's request to be imprisoned in Tokyo was also granted, and he spent 14 years in Fuchu Prison until December, 1961, when he was released on parole.

The character Yoshitake Shiraishi in the manga Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda was revealed in an interview with the author to have been based on and named after Shiratori.