Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 211. Yoshie Shiratori - Japan's Houdini

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211. Yoshie Shiratori - Japan's Houdini · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The history podcast that is not your history class, with me,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: your host, Katie Chorlwood, history harlot and reader of books.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And I would like to apologise for the delay in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: this week's episode, but my microphone has decided. to fight
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: me I've got a blue yeti and it is it
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is pink because I like an aesthetic and I refuse
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to live in a grey scale world I'm sorry I'm
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: not doing it my laptop is I think sort of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I want to say like somewhere between teal and navy
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: because that was the only colour they had um I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: do like to have a colourful laptop if possible just
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: because again I I don't want to live in a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: grey scale world like We used to have fun things.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Things used to be colours. It was amazing. So my
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Blue Yeti microphone is pink and it has been doing
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: me fine, you know, but I don't know whether it's
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the cable, which I've replaced, so I don't know if
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: it's that. And I've had like other sort of little
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: mics and I've hoped for the best, but this is
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: just not going as well for me as I would like. Now,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I'm also not having the greatest setup because I'm currently
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: working on the new setup, which is going to be
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: upstairs in my room. So I'm going to have like
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a little pod corner. It's going to be great. But
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I just need a few things to get that sorted.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking of getting like the road mics
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and stuff. I've heard good things. But if anyone wants
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to like give me advice, but like you're talking to
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a three-year-old, okay? No, not even five, but three. You
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: need to explain things like I have never heard what
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a microphone is in the world. There is a contact
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: form on the website. Feel free to help me there.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: But yeah, just to make sure that I can keep
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: everything going and smoothly because I got big plans coming up, everybody.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I got big plans. And oh, it's October soon and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I am so ready for spooky season. Like my body
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: is ready and I am. So I'm like, I'm trying
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to get my kids into sort of Halloween and spooky things.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Because Halloween now isn't as scary as Halloween when I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: was little, I don't think. Because we're a lot, we
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: have a lot more friendly Halloween options. Was it somebody
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: said that they, like the cutesy Halloween stuff? Like, or
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: as I like to call it, like the whimsy goth.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: You know, it's part of, I think somebody said either
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it's like a conservative indicator or a recession indicator or
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: something to that effect. And I was like, listen. If
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: my disco ghostie will get my child to not cry
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and allow me to have part of my Halloween set
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: up up, then yeah, yeah, we will do this. Yeah,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: because my kids are 10 and 12 and I realised
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: fairly recently that what I was watching between 10 and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: 12 is not the same thing. Because I was trying
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to find like a family friendly movie. I was like,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: what's the family movies that everybody in the family can watch?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: which is like, it's stuff for kids, but also stuff
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that adults can enjoy, like Shrek. You know, Shrek I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: would deem as a family movie because of, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the jokes in it and stuff. And I was like
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: looking for something in that vein. But like we were
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: watching stuff like Father of the Bride and Beethoven. I'm
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a millennial. Remember this. I'm old. So I would watch
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Hook and things like that. But now it seems like
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: everything that seemed family friendly is like, I'm going to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: call it like the U rating, the universal, the children's,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the baby rating, as we call it. There's no like PG,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: like trying to find PG stuff now. I'm just like, where's,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: where's the PG content? Like, where are our action adventures?
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Where's our Indiana Jones? You know, except at this point,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: he's not like, no, I'm not going to pitch my
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: reverse Indiana Jones thing right now, but it involves Brie Larson.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in my head my fan cast and my little brain
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: but yeah I've been trying to get the kids into
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: like spooky stuff nothing too scary and like so far
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: I think we've got like the Scooby Doo movie Casper
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: now they have seen The Nightmare Before Christmas but we
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: tend to watch that at Christmas because it's that's a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Christmas movie not a Halloween movie but I'm not going
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to get into that they've seen Hocus Pocus and Hocus
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Pocus 2. But, you know, it wasn't a good one.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: But I was thinking, like, Halloween Town is on the list,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and the Addams Family movies. And it hurts me to say,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: not the one with Tim Curry. Dear Tim Curry. Like,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that was not a good movie. But yeah, so if
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you have any recommendations, there is a contact form on
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: my website. It saves anyone actually getting through to me,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: because My DMs are kind of crazy right now on
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: all the socials. So if you do the contact form
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: on the website, then I'll know what it's about. And
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: it's much easier to get in stuff. And especially considering
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: now with Meta and this whole Skynet situation. But that's
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: another story for another day. So touring. I know we're
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: five minutes in. I'm so sorry. We're touring. There should
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: be an announcement coming soon for some of the Texas
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: dates and the Bay Area. And For the Irish dates, now,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the last time I checked, there were only 12 tickets
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: left for the Belfast show. There's still half the tickets
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: left for Dublin, but Belfast is down to 12. Canada
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: dates should be coming in the next few weeks. And
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: anyone who has put their email down in the email list, again,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: if you haven't already done that, you can just do
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the contact form on the website and be like, my
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: name's Susan and this is my email. But you can
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: do that. You can contact through the contact form on
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the website. Just name and email. Just like first name
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and email is fine. And you'll get added to the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: list when like stuff's coming out and you'll be like, yeah,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: here's a thing. Or you can subscribe to the website
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: because notifications are going to start going out via that
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: as well. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, please.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It's six and a half minutes in and we haven't
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: even gotten to any history. So Quit your jibble-jabble and
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: fact me, and fact you I well, but first, we've
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: got to get our source on. Our sources are Yoshi
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Shiratori The Grand Jailbreak by Edgar Wollstone Yoshi Shiratori The
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Incredible Story of a Man No Prison Could Hold by
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Marius Carlos Jr. Yoshi Shiratori The Man No Prison Could
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Hold by Matthew Heron And also I have articles from
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the Japan Times, which are fabulous. And yeah, I was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: sitting comfortably. Good. Then let's begin. To finish off the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: month of jailbreaks and great escapes, honestly, I thought I've
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: been very Western with this. And I really should branch
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: out more and share the story of a man. Again,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: as you heard from the sources, no prison can hold
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And over in Japan, yes, he was known as the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Japanese Houdini, actually, just because of how much, like, he escaped. Now,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: four times. He escaped four times. And each one is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: just more interesting than the last. But let's get into this.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yoshi Shiratori was born on the 31st of July, 1907,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in Arakawa village in Higa Shitsuguru in the Aomori Prefecture
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: in Japan. Now, Arakawa village is, it no longer exists as,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: at least independently. And it was amalgamated, absorbed and became
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: part of Aomori city since like 1955. You know, just
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: in case you can't find Arakawa on a map, you're like, oh,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I wonder why? It's because it's now, I think it's
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: now just like a region within the city. Like a district.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: It's like a district. That's a word. What's the area
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: in a city that's like a part of it and
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: it's like district? That's what I mean. So like the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Aomori Prefecture is in the northern part of Honshu, which
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: is Japan's main island. Fun fact, I think I mentioned
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: this before, but Japan is made up of over, I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: love this one, 14,000 islands. Now that is absolutely... massive,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: which is like, because when I think of Japan, I
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: think of, like, the two islands, I feel like there's two,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and then I kind of, but yeah, there's 14,000 of them,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: so like a couple more, one could say. Now, Yoshi
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Shiratori was one of three children. He had an older
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: brother and a younger sister. And he was a middle child,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: but we are not going to hold that against him.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: When he's two years old, his father dies, after which
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: we don't I have an exact timeline here, but his
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: mother leaves for the Akita Prefecture and she takes her
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: older brother with her, leaving Yoshi and his younger sister
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: in the care of his aunt. Now, you often see
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: this phrased as abandoned by his mother, but I don't know, right?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: This is a benefit of the doubt situation. just because
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I know the way that books are written. So this
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: is something you see time and time again. A widow
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: with children, you know, two of them quite young, left
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in the care of a financially stable relative. Meanwhile, she
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: takes the older child to go live with, you know,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: her somewhere else. And so she goes to live with
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: this farmer. And listen, if you're going to go live
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: with a farmer, something that, I don't know, just seems
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to get brushed over here quite a lot in this
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: discussion is that if you live with a farmer, you're
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: going to be farming, right? That's just the part of it. Now,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: so the older child is at least old enough to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: follow instructions. So she's taking him, I'm assuming for work,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: like to do tasks. And the younger children are not
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: there yet. So I'm going to assume they're under five
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: at this point, just because that makes the most sense,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: like from a, just from, again, from an instruction scenario.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So regardless of the circumstances of her departure... Like, Yoshi's
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: lost both of his parents and he feels abandoned. Like,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that's just going to be part and parcel of it. Now,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yoshi and his sister were raised by their aunt and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: they worked together for a while in her tofu shop.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: But you can't work in your aunt's tofu shop forever
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and Yoshi goes to make his way in the world.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: He works around, getting odd jobs here, a little farming there,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a little crab fishing for Russia. Over there. Now, as
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: one does. At one point he does get married around
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: 1929 and they have a daughter. Now, the fisherman gig
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: isn't really working out for him because the thing about
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the Great Depression is it dominoed across the world and
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: people were struggling. And one thing led to another and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Yoshi gets into gambling. I mean, it's the 1930s, so
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: he may not have heard the old adage of the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: house always wins, but the house always wins. And in
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a move that surprises absolutely no one, Yoshihiro goes into debt,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: along with a few other acquaintances. I would call them friends,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: but except that absolutely not. See, these men sink into
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: gambling debt and they have to pay said gambling debts.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: The last thing you want to do is owe money
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to people who run gambling establishments because that's how you
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: end up with no shins. So they do the reasonable step, like,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: what do we do? What's our option? Aha, robbery, obviously.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So they break into homes, steal some stuff, money, preferably, but,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever they can get their hands on. If
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: they can fence it also, fair enough. Things are going okay.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Up until one fateful night in 1933, he and his
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: accomplices break into a house, you know, like they have
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: done plenty of times before. Except this time, unlike every
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: other fairly simple burglary, they are disturbed by the homeowner. Now,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: he is very not happy about being robbed, obviously, and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: an altercation occurs. So, during this kerfuffle, the homeowner is murdered, right?
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming the homeowner is a man, just because of...
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Because no matter how I look this up, it's just homeowner,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: you know, from every translation I've found. Now, no definition
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: of gender, so I'm going to assume male, because it's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: from the 30s, you know? So, homeowner murdered. And Yoshi
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: is like, uh-uh, no, this is too hot. And he
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: gets the heck out of Dodge because he doesn't need
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: that on him. Now, this is not the smartest of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: moves because one of his accomplices gets arrested pretty sharpish
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and starts singing like a canary. And he says, I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: thought I'd tell Yoshi, kill the guy. No, but no, seriously,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: that was... He puts all the blame on Yoshi because,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of course, he wasn't going to admit doing it. Also,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: that was... That was a terrible Tweetypie impression. I need
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: everyone to know that that was a terrible Tweetypie impression.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: That was not a Asian, terrible, terrible Asian accent attempt
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: because I wouldn't even try that because one, my tongue's
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: too floppy and I know this from a friend from
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Habing in China and she's like trying to pronounce, trying
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: to help me pronounce words and she's like, your Tongue
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: is too floppy. It cannot do. There's too much tongue,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: which is never usually a complaint, but here we are.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so that was a terrible Tweetypie impression. So
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he completely rats Yoshi out. And I mean, it's convenient
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: when you consider that Yoshi is out of town and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: he's putting the blame on him. And Yoshi's gone. He's
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: doing something for two years. What? Whom's to say? but
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: we can assume it was not entirely legal. So, two
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: years later, the law catches up with him, and he's arrested,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and initially he's, like, pleading innocence. However, the Japanese police
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: forced a confession. The term that is used most often
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: was harsh interrogation, and Yoshi himself would refer to the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: incident as torture. And then, Yoshi Shiratori- was sent to
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Aomori Prison to serve his sentence in 1936. Unsurprisingly, prisoners
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: in Japanese incarceration were not treated well. In fact, they
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: were dehumanised. And, like, it wasn't just physical abuse. Part
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of it was just, like, mental degradation. It was verbal
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: abuse and consistent. And Yoshi did not appreciate this mistreatment
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of prisoners. And like, he's pretty vocal about it himself.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: So he speaks up about it and this led to
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: him receiving disciplinary action. Yeah, so for standing up for
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: other prisoners and himself, obviously, he gets punished. And so
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: he gets put in a punishment cell because of course
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: they have those. And it's this that triggers his sort
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of decision to escape the prison. Now, how did he
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: do this? Well, I'm glad you asked because I'll tell you.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Prisoners were brought a bathing bucket to wash themselves with
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and there was a wire wrapped around the bucket. Now,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: I have also seen it referred to as a bathing bowl. Now,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not too up on early 20th century bathing implements
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: in Japanese prisons, but Yeah, there's this wire wrapped around
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the bathing bucket slash bowl. And like an old timey
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: sort of MacGyver, he fashions a lockpick out of this. Now,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: one thing about Yoshi Shiratori is that he pays attention. Like,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: he bides his time. And then one night, he tears
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: up the floor of his cell. Which... Can I say,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: if someone can tear up the floor of a prison cell,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that's not a very good prison cell. I'd say it's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: less than efficient. But yes, he tears it up and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: he stuffs it into his futon, like bundling up blankets,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: making it look like he's all snuggled up in bed.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: After this, he uses the wire to pick the lock
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: in his cell. He sneaks through the prison and he
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: makes his way to a cracked skylight because he had, again,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: noticed it. So he pulls himself through this and just
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: walks away to freedom for three whole days. Now, I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: think he injured himself. There's no information saying that he
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: injured himself. However... He managed to get to a hospital
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and it was there where he is arrested for trying
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to steal supplies. So I am of the opinion that
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the reason that he was in the hospital stealing supplies
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: was because he was injured in some capacity. Now, if
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: there was a cracked skylight, if there was glass involved
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in that, then perchance this could have happened or... when
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: he climbed off the roof of the building, or when
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: he was trudging through the countryside, you know. But he's
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: in the hospital, he gets arrested, and they didn't want
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to risk putting him back in the Omuri prison because, well,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: they didn't like the embarrassment of it. And so... an
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: escape charge was added onto his charges of robbery and murder.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: He goes to a local court and then that trial, yeah,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: out of the local Iomori court leads him to be
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: sent to Miyagi prison. Then he's moved to Kosuga prison.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Then in 1942, he's transferred to the prison in Akita. Now,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: another thing, so he's moved through a few of these,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: a few of these prisons, right? But there's no reason
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: as to why they just kind of move him. So
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he was like trying escapes or
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: planning escapes, but they wouldn't share that information because obviously
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: they don't want it to be a thing because he's
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: already been kind of a deal. already escaping from one prison.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: But yes, next thing we know, 1942, he is transferred
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to a prison in Akita. And this is where escape
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: number two happens. Akita prison had certain cells that were
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: seemingly escape artist proof. And that was by design and function.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: The cell was narrow, with smooth copper walls and very,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: very high ceilings. And it wasn't heated, so in the winter,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: it was bitterly cold. There was a small area for ventilation,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: and it was between the iron bars of the door
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and the iron bars on the ceiling. And like, it's
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the only place in the cell where sunlight would come in.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: The guards had Yoshi handcuffed all day, every day, except
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: when it was time to wash up. And being the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: observant fellow that he is, he noticed that the wooden
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: framing around the skylight or the window bars was starting
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to rot. And he's handcuffed. So like, what is he
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: going to do about it? Now, you'll hear the story
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that he dislocated his thumbs to get out of the handcuffs.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I'm dubious about that account. It is the one that's
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: shared most often. But Yoshi, when he was interviewed, said
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: that he had kept another makeshift lockpick in his cell
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: and he would use that to pick the lock on
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: his handcuffs. Either way, he would slide out of them
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: at night. He would use the narrow walls to his
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: advantage and scale them. He'd like shimmy up them like
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Spider-Man up to the wee window bit, right? He would
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: grab and hold the bars and shake it. Just like...
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: You can't see me right now, but I'm reenacting the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: shaking and I gave you a sound effect. You're welcome.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So he'd come back down and every night he would
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: put the handcuffs back on and the guards were none
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the wiser. Now, this is why I'm fairly certain he
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was not dislocating his thumbs, because he'd have to dislocate
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: them and then put them back in, you know? He'd
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: have to go back up, right? As someone who used
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to dislocate their fingers when I was younger quite regularly,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and now I can't do it anymore, just out of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: pure anxiety. Like, I mean, physically I could probably do it,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: but I'd have to let my hands relax enough, and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I just hold too much tension in my body now
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I think until the end of time so hence my
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: dubiousness about him having to dislocate and then relocate his
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: fingers like I just don't think that's a thing I
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: think he picked it because one that's what he said
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and also yeah he's gonna like do the window shaking
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: like how is he gonna shake those bars like without
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: those opposable thumbs working properly anyway so The guards here
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: were just as shitty as back in the Eomori prison. And, yeah,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: he wasn't fond of that, and so he decided, you know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: he's getting out of there. See, here's the thing. With
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the guards, like, there was punishment in place. So, like,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: if you allowed a prisoner to escape, and I use
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: that term loosely, but they would be punished, there was, like,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: pay decreases in docks, there was just, like, worse sort
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of jobs to do. Like, you would just be screwed, effectively. Now,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: on the night of the 14th of June, 1942, it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: was a stormy evening. He scaled the wall, pulled the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: bars from the window, opened the skylight, climbed onto the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: roof and, with that heavy rain... Covering up the sounds
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of his footsteps, he made his way across the roof
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and made it out. And he's free for another three months.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: So three days to three months, that's a big step, right?
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: And in desperation, he shows up at the house of Kobayashi,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a guard who had been decidedly not shirty to him
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: back in... back in Kasug prison. So he shows up
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: at Kobayashi's house. So yeah, he shows up at Kobayashi's house, right?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely starving. And Kobayashi invites him in. He feeds him potatoes.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: He gives him some tea. And I like to think
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: they're Danshaku potatoes. I don't know if you know this
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: about me. But I love potatoes. Sidebar, actually. Sidebar. I'm
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: going to have a potato sidebar because I do love potatoes.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: So there was a... I was taking my kids to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: see Coyote vs. Acme at the weekend and one of
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: their friends showed up at the door asking if they
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to come out and play. And I was like, oh, well,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: if you run up and ask your parents, you can
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: come join us because we're going to be leaving at
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: such and such time to go to the cinema and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I have an extra ticket. So basically what happened was...
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: just it's that no single seat thing so I was
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: trying to book the three of us and to get
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the three of us on the one row um it
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: was like a it's a little VIP cinema for that
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: screening and so just for that time of day and
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: so it's downstairs and it's got this uh like these
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: really cool remote control seats that lie back like lazy
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: boys and they are amazing and comfortable but they do
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: need better cup holders it's my only complaint is a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: better cup holder so um these seats and there's four
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: in a row and there's two. So it's, yeah, it's
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: a small enough little theatre. And I couldn't book three
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: tickets of like us sitting together. And so, well, well, well,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, I'll just book four, you know, and
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: worst case, we can sit our popcorn down, you know.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: So anyway, we're sitting down. It's fine. It's grand. But yeah,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: my story was, I say to them, it's fine. They're
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: originally from Sardinia, this family. And so they go and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: they ask. And I was like, go up with them.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: So my boy goes up with them. Just so they
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: know it's like a real old fern. He's not making stories.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: And he comes back. My son comes back with, oh,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: he's not allowed to go. But they gave us this
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: bag of potatoes. They gave me a bag of potatoes
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: as some kind of recompense for not allowing their son
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: to go out to the cinema or whatever and I
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: was like wow I mean I don't know if they
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: think this is a thing you do like do they
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: think when you come to Ireland all you do is
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: like you say sorry and you give some potatoes now
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not against it um because I love potatoes and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: these ones weren't great actually they were kind of like
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: flowery but anyway that's neither here nor there I love
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: potatoes and it was like we're sorry have some potatoes
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and I'm like thanks But yeah, he has some potatoes,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: he has some tea, and Yoshi tells him that being
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: imprisoned is fine. He doesn't mind being imprisoned. He understands that.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: It's the being abused by the guards that he's not
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: entirely keen on, and he was exhausted from all of
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the torture inflicted by said guards. He goes on to
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: tell him that he wanted to expose the barbaric system
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of Japanese prisons. And that he wants to be free
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: legally and do this through a civil lawsuit. He's making
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: headlines because this is escape number two. And it's basically
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: making fun of like, oh, they couldn't keep this guy in. Now,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Kobayashi is like, you know, you want to be free legally.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: You know, you can't get legal freedom when you're an
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: escaped convict. So we need to sort that out. He
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: convinces Yoshi to turn himself in and he even accompanies
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: him to the police station. Well, that's Kobayashi's perspective. He
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: says that he convinced him, but the way that Yoshi
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: takes it... it is that he was betrayed by Kobayashi
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and in this whole situation and because of this he
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: completely lost faith in law enforcement he said he could
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: never trust a police officer again after this So Yoshi
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: is arrested again. This time he is sent to Abashiri prison.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Now this prison was at the most northern tip of Hokkaido, right?
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: So it's super remote, right? And Abashiri was Japan's unescapable prison.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: It was escape proof, right? And yeah, yeah, it was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: harsh and it was designed to be cruel. It was
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: an open cell, so it was cold. And what they
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: would do with the prisoners is, you know, just to
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: make them suffer, is the prison uniforms that they would wear,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: like in the summer, they would be thick. And then
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: in the winter, they'd be thin. So they'd be absolutely
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: sweltering in the heat and absolutely chonking freezing in the cold.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: And he begs not to put in handcuffs. He's like,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: please don't handcuff me. It You know, the worst. It's degrading.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do it. And he was put
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: in specially made handcuffs. Ones that could not be picked.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: And they were shackled as well. So he had shackles
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: that weighed a shit ton. Like it's 20kg and it's
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: on his arms and legs. And it is specifically designed
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: to keep him restrained. And so he spends most of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: his time low. both figuratively and literally. So when he
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: would try and stand up, like in his cell, he
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: would be beaten by the guards. He was in solitary
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: and he was suffering. But again, he's observant. His cell
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: didn't have a high ceiling, but it did have a
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: window frame with iron bars. As I went to frame,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it's like a little slot where the hand and his
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: foot in it. But it's small. I mean, it's tight. Like, it's... Like,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say, like, it's very slim is
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's hard to fit through. It's very,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: very small. Now, he couldn't properly lift his arms or
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: his legs. So, again, he's on the ground most of
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the time eating his soup. Like a dog out of
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a bowl. Like, there are also maggots, like, infesting, like,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: between the handcuffs and his skin from, like, the sores
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and the gaping wounds that are caused by the cuffs. Like,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: this is... This is inhumane, is the best way to
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: describe it. And so, all of this is just, like,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: horribly affecting him. And so he hatches plants Number three.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Yoshi is a patient man. That's one thing you can
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: definitely say about him. And he, well, he would spit
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: his miso soup onto the panel that was on the
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: bars of the door. And he did this for months
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: until the salt in the soup corroded the metal. And
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: then in the spring, he started doing the same method
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: on his handcuffs and shackles. And eventually, because of the corrosion,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: he was able to break out of the cuffs. Now
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: this still left the teeny, tiny... I don't even want
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to call it a window because it's the food slot.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: It's like very, very small. And so he realises, like,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: he's not quite going to make it through. And this
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: is the thing. The 26th of August, 1944, he decides
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: to give it a go anyway. He's like, why not
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: at this point? Me as well. It's 1944. And there
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: is a blackout. So World War II is going on
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: at this point. We are in 1944. We're nearing the end,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: but it's still very much happening. You know, the Pacific
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: War is all part of this. But there's a blackout.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And yeah, he's going to use this to his advantage.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: So he was actually very particular about how he broke
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: out because it was supposed to be... His plan was
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: to go out one night, but he ended up delaying it.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: because there was one good guard, like one who was
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: not crappy, and so he didn't want to, you know,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: break out the night that he was on, because, you know,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: punishments and all that. So he waited till the shitty
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: guards were back on duty, and that was when he
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: decides he's gonna make a break for it. So again,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: there's this wee footslot. He's done what he can to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: corrode as much of the metal as possible. And he
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: tries to get through this, but in order to actually
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: get his body through this small tiny hole, he has
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: to dislocate his shoulder. Now, I think that because of
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: this dislocating shoulder incident, that that's why people think he
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: could dislocate his thumbs, but like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: think it's just this. So he's dislocated his shoulder. He's
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: in pain. And yeah, he climbs up onto the ceiling beams, right?
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Wearing only his underwear. Like he was not fitting through
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: that gap in his prison uniform. Absolutely not, right? So
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: he's just in... Just, yeah, topless. He's just in the underwear, right?
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: And he... makes his way through another broken skylight because
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: apparently none of these prisons ever think to fix a skylight.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, but also good on him for having that
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: level of, you know, flexibility and dexterity because, I mean, he's,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: he's like getting close to 40 now. And, you know,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: once you hit your 30s, your back is just never
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the same and you make noises when you stand up
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and sit down. You know, you're just broken as a human.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, he's doing, he's doing okay here. And so,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: He makes it out. And the police were searching all
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: over Hokkaido city and they couldn't find him. And so
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: they end up just giving up the search because they
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: assumed he wouldn't make it if he was out in
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: the wild, what with like the bears and whatnot. Now,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the search is called off. Like, if he was in
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the city, they would have found him. And if he
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: was in the wilderness, the bears would have found him. Yeah,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: so it was basically assumed that he would not survive. Right?
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: And so, they're just like, eh, probably dead. Probably eaten
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: by bears. Like that, they're just, it's fine. But because
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: he's escaped again, and he's escaped this prison which is
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: meant to be Like, escape proof. The peoples are having
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a field day. They're like, what is this? And he
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: starts to get a little bit of, like, folk hero
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: status from this. Because this is a man who has
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: escaped a Japanese prison three times. But this is not
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the last that we'll hear of Yoshi Shiratori. Yoshi Shiratori
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: had been in hiding in an abandoned mine in Hokkaido
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: for two years. He had been forging in the woods
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: and eating the odd rabbit and allegedly raccoon. Now, allegedly,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: where did he find tools? Well, maybe he found them
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: in the mine. I should have thought of that. I
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: had this whole thing. I was like, but how did
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: he do it? And it's like, The abandoned mine maybe
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: had abandoned tools. But he was like hiding out in
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: this mine for yonks. And occasionally he made his way
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: into a village which was nearby. And he's just like
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: wandering around the village and he's kind of like peeking at,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the news and he's listening to the gossip.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: And this is where he learns that Japan had been
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: defeated in the Pacific War. So World War II, he's like, oh,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Japan lost. And he wouldn't have known that because he's
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: been helmeting out in a mine for two years. And
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: so he thinks, oh, well, if this is all happening,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: maybe times have changed. Because with the war over and
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: with the arrival of the US military government, you know,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: he thinks clean slate. Maybe he's got a get out
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: of jail free card, you know? He thinks, oh, well,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: maybe nobody's going to be searching for him. Maybe nobody's
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: going to be interested. And he's like, great, right? And
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: so he decides that he's going to make his way home.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: He's going to head back to Eomori. Now, oh, I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: actually forgot to mention this. way back, is he'd got married,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: he had a daughter, and when he was arrested the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: first time when he was in Iomori, like, he and
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: his wife divorced. Now, I have one source that says
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: that she divorced him, and then I have another one
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that says he divorced her. So in the Meiji period, right,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: if you wanted a divorce, basically, it was all to
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: do with supporting the household as opposed to like individuals.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: And of course, because of, you know, patriarchal standards, it
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: was more difficult for women to get a divorce, but
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: they could do it because they had to be respected,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: cared for, supported by their husband. Now, if he's in jail,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: obviously that ain't happening. So I'm more inclined to think
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that she did it. But I also... Okay, this is
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: one of those things where I'm just like, there was
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: a source that... she was waiting for so many years
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: for him to come back, but that just sounds a
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: bit more wishy-washy, you know what I mean? That's the thing, though.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: You read these things, and especially, I get a bit
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: more apprehensive when something's in a language that I don't
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: speak or read, so I'm relying on other people's translations
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: for certain things, and that can lead to information being
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: not entirely accurate. So I do my best here, and
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: I do try and make sure this is right for everybody,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: but yeah, he had been, they're divorced, and yeah, he
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: was saying he was going to go back to Iomori,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: meet up with his family, see his daughter, like that
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: was his goal, right? He was walking for about 15
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: days when he gets to Sapporo. And he is famished.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And he comes across a field full of delicious fruit
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: and veg. And, listen, he's hungry, he's been walking for
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a long time, and he is absolutely tearing it into
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: this tomato. Like, he is destroying it. He's, like, full face. Like,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you know. And it's this time where he's caught by
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: a farmer who was, needless to say, quite upset about
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the scenario. He was already obsessed and really angry about, like, scrumping.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: So people were, like, really, like, nicking his produce all
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the time. Like, this is post-war. Things aren't super for
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. And he's just like, nope. And
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: he's angry and he is violent. So he attacks Yoshi, who,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: in the chaos of this situation, manages to grab a
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: tool and stab the farmer. Now, they do not say
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: which tool. they do not say how he was stabbed.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So again, I am trying to work from, you know,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: gardening tool assumptions here. Now, obviously in my brain goes pitchfork,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: which incidentally is how Orlando Bloom was killed on an
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: episode of Midsommar Murders. Pitchfork. So like scythe maybe, because
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure on 1940s Japanese agricultural tools specifically.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: So like, but my brain is like, a scythe, like
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: what could you like impale someone with? We're counting stabbing
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, fork, pitchfork. I mean, you could do
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: it with a trowel, but you would need a lot
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of force and I feel like that doesn't really work
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: in the whole self-defense scenario. But yeah, I think like
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: big scythe, little scythe, those little wee scythes, you know
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the wee ones? They're kind of, yeah. I don't know
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: why I'm swinging my hand as if you can see
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: the action I'm doing. And I don't have a video podcast.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: And I like being in your ears, okay? Sidebar. I
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: like being in your ears. I like that you don't
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: have to see me, you know? And I have short-form
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: videos that I have that go out and they're going
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: to be all over October. We're going to go spooky.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: We're going to go mysterious. I'm going to try and
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: not be too harsh because I think we're all dealing
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: with a lot right now and I feel like we
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: could deal with a lot less. So, farmer is stabbed,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: farmer dies. And what do you know? Yoshi is arrested again. Now,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: he's in court now for, one, escaping again, and two, murder. Now,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: in court, Yoshi Shiratori tries to explain it was self-defence,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and the court is having absolutely no None of it. So,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: he is convicted and sentenced to death and is immediately, like,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, he tries to repeal it, like, straight away,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: but he is sent to Sapporo Prison. Like, they are
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: so worried that he was going to Houdini his way
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: out again. Like, they just go to extreme measures. Like,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the cell had a ridiculously high ceiling. Like it was
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: super duper high, right? And the only window they had,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: the only sort of ventilation, the only like possible like
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: looky looky out part was, it was half the size
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of like the food slot. So it was like, he
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: couldn't fit his head through it. Like that's how small
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: it was. Like a human could not pass through. Even
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: if they were on a Zen pick, you're not getting
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: through that, mate, right? And the guards were put on, like,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: 24-hour surveillance. And they were armed, right? They had weapons.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: And because of there being, I don't know, an abundance
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of armed guards for this one dude, they did not
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: feel the need to handcuff them. Which, gentle listener, was
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: mistake number two. He was always like, like, he's being observed.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: He knows he's being observed. And so he is looking
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: up at the ceiling and he's always looking up at
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: the ceiling. But no matter how much he looked up,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: there was not a way out. Which is why he
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: decided to go down. And here he is, in prison,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: awaiting execution, right? And he's just thinking, absolutely not. Fuck
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: this for a game of soldiers. He's getting the heck
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: out of Dodge. So, like, he's known for rooftop escapes.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: He knows that he's known for rooftop escapes. Like, this man, like,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: he's not just a hat rack, you know? And he
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: knows he's being watched. And so, when he knows he's
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: being watched, he's looking up. But... He wasn't watched all
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the time. So he manages to, like, pull up the floorboards. Now, allegedly,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: this was done with more MacGyvering. So there was a
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: washbasin and he manages to fashion a saw from the washbasin.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: And he's, like, slowly cutting through this hole in the floor. Like,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: it's taken him a while because it's a very small saw.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: And he's got this... I'm going to say poo bucket.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: Because he has... There's a thing with extra men anyway
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: in it. And he kind of puts it over the
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: area where he's digging. Or sawing, I should say, when
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: he's sawing this bit. And the guards just did not
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: want to go near that. They're like, we're not touching
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the thing with poo on it. Like, that ain't... We're
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: not going near that. So it covered up that for him. Yeah.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: They weren't too fond of feces. So that's worked in
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: his regard. And so he does that until he finally has, like,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a way to break through. And so he, yeah, rips
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: up the floor one night and, like he did the
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: very first time, he stuffs it into his bed. Right?
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: And on the 31st of March, 1947, using his soup bowl...
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: He digs through the dirt under the floor of his cell.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: And he digs his way out in under two hours. Now,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: this man and his miso soup, like, he's using it
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: for all sorts of things. And anyone else, like, a
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: wee bit hungry for miso soup? I'm just putting it
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: out there because I'm a wee bit peckish right now myself. Now,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: to give you an understanding of the prisons, it's like
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: they were made of wood, right? So... the floorboard was
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: raised off the ground by, like, two feet. So, like,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the reason that there's this gap between, like, the floor
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: and the ground was to prevent things, like, rot. You know,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: because if you've got it directly on the dark... it's
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: gonna cause some problems and also what's handy about this
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: is that because there's that gap because you've got that
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: space for him to like dig the dirt that he's
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: you know using for the digging he's able to like
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: chuck up like onto the uh So, like, he's got
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: somewhere for it to go. So, two meals, digs through, bish, bash, bosh,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and makes it out. So he gets to the wall
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: part and it's snowing. So he sort of uses dirt
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: and snow to help him scale over the outer wall.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: And off he went to freedom. So, by this point,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: right by this point this is his fourth prison escape
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: and they're just like what is happening like a guard
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: goes in to check on him and he's like shouting
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: at him and he realizes that he's not in his
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: bed anymore and they're like oh my god oh my
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: god this is just this is just the almost shape
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: of a man He didn't even make a paper mache head.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. There was a lot less work
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: in this. But I mean, I mean, he did dig
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: a hole with a soup bowl, which we can just
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: appreciate for that level of ingenuity. But he's in the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: papers again. He's making headlines. And like from the second time,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: he's like already a big deal. And now this is
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: the fourth and it's all over the front page. Like
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: it is. Hella embarrassing for the Japanese incarceration system. Now,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: he's free. And he's free for another year. So it's
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: 1948 and he's in this park. And a police officer
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: sits beside him. And he's trying to be pretty chill
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: about it. He's trying to be pretty cool. And he thinks, oh,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: I haven't been recognised. This is great. And the police
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: officer starts talking to him and he starts panicking. He's
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: trying to be really... rational with his answers so he
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: doesn't know who he is and then the police officer
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: offers him a cigarette. See in post-war Japan cigarettes were
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: expensive so sharing one was kind of a big deal
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: right and so this officer offering him a cigarette like
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Yoshi Shiritori He just cracks, right? This, he says this
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: act of kindness just really pushed him over the edge.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Like he breaks down and he goes on to explain
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: who he is, how he's a fugitive and how he
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: has been for the last year and how he's just
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: exhausted from everything, from being on the run. From all
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: of the escapes, from all parts of it, he's just
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: tired of it all. And so he is taken into custody.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: And this time, when he's in court, there's a bit
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: more reason, I think. So there's a discussion about how,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: when he escaped, like, is this guy really a crazy,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: violent criminal? Because... This first, like, quote, murder was just
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: comes down to the word of another criminal and, you know,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: a pressured confession. So this man's, like, saying he's innocent. So, like,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: that happened. Like, every other time of him being out,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: there's been no reports of, like, particular forms of violence
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: happening up until now. you know, the altercation with the farmer.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: And they're like, you know what? That does seem like self-defense.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: They were like looking at it. They're very meticulous about
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the crime scene. And they're looking at it and they're going, okay,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: you know, this does seem more like a self-defense scenario.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: And they're like, every time this man escaped, he did
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: so without causing any harm to anyone. There was no
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: bodily harm. There was no attempt of attack, nothing. And
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: even when he was out and about, Like, typically, there
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: was no moments of violence. But in fairness, they say that, like,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: if you starve. What was it? If you deny... What
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: is that whole saying of, like, denying somebody, like, lunch
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: and dinner, they'll be revolting by breakfast? Or is that, like,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: if you deny someone breakfast and lunch, they're revolting by dinner?
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's a thing. And if that's not
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: a thing, it should be, because it's right. It's this
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: whole thing of, like, starving people out. Which works, unless...
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: you're trying to starve out Stalingrad. Like, no, no, no.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: You don't want to try and starve out Baltic people
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: because they'll make soup from sawdust. They don't give a shit.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Like a honey batter. But, you know, they noticed that
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: when it came to his crimes, typically, violence was not
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: part of it. Because it came to reason that if
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: he's out coming into the village every now and again,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: chances are he's He's pilfering a wee bit. He's nicking
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: a bit here and there. But no violent crime apart
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: from this instance with the farmer. So they revoke the
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: death sentence. They clear him of murder. And he is
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: sentenced to 20 years in prison instead. And the thing is,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: during this trial, he explains his reason for escaping. You know,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: the mistreatment of prisoners. He wasn't going to stay somewhere
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: where they were actively causing brutality and being corrupt and
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. And so he requests to
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: be imprisoned in Tokyo. And for 14 years, he was
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: incarcerated in Fuchu prison. So the warden of Fuchu, Suzuki,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: there was talks of putting him in solitary or putting
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: him into this bit and that bit. And Suzuki was like, nope.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: Don't put him in, like, an unescapable cell or escape
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: proof or this harsh one or whatever. Like, no, no, no, no. Like,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: have him treated like any other prisoner. So, like, don't
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: be targeting him. Don't be doing this. Just let him be. So, like,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: he had heating on cold days, right? He had the appropriate, like,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I was going to say outfit, uniform. Prison, uniform, I'm
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: going to say thickness for the different weathers. He was
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: not handcuffed. And most importantly, he was not abused. Verbally
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: or physically. Like, in fact, he was a model prisoner
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: for the entirety of his sentence. So much so that
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: he was released on parole today. in 1961 because he's
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: supposed to be away for 20 years he gets away
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: six years early and he returns to Eomori and he
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: is reunited with his daughter now his ex-wife she'd actually
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: passed away a few years previously and again you'll read
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: some reports of how she died waiting for him to
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: come back and yeah maybe maybe she was waiting for
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: him maybe The divorce was more honourable than being married to,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: you know, a man in prison. Especially a man accused
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: of murder. But, you know, he is out. He gets, well,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: he renames his daughter. I don't know if it goes
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: too well, actually. But, yeah. He just continues on with life.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: He has some more jobs and he works in construction
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: for a while. And eventually, he suffers a myocardial infection,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: which results in a heart attack. And on the 24th
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: of February, 1979, at the age of 71, Yoshi Shiritori
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: passed away. And he died going into legend, really, because
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: I'd say so ends the story of Yoshishiro Torii. The
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: Meiji Prison Break King. Like, he lives on as this,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: he's very much a folk hero now. And also, listen,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: we love a good jailbreak. We love an escape. And
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: we love a successful escape. And especially considering we know
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: that he got out that he made it out properly
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: like now when it comes to things like Alcatraz you
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: know we don't know if they really survived we like
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: to think they do but we're not entirely sure we
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: know that with with some of the escapes like from
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: from May's prison some of those guys were never seen
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: again after that so whether they got new identities or
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: whether they were murdered by the guards and bodies dumped somewhere,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: who's to say? But, yes, he escaped and then he survived.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: We don't know too much about the remainder of his life, but...
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: If he escaped because he didn't appreciate, you know, the
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: way that prisoners were treated, or if he escaped to
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: try and bring shame upon the prisons. Listen, I'm not
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: a fan of incarceration at the best of times because
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's done for profit. And it's, I don't know,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: for certain people, I feel like the punishment is a
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: bit harsh. And that's why, you know, the system needs
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: to be very, very strong. But that's for the here
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: and there. With that, it is recommendation time. So for reading,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: I actually put this out on threads, actually, because that's
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: where I live now. And I realised how chronically online
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: I am because I made a joke about gay Halloween
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: and somebody was like, oh, why are you making jokes
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: about the LGBTQ? And I was like, I'm not. It's
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: gay Halloween. It's let me tell you about this all
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: day specific No, I was like, honey, I was like,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't have time to like explain it. I wasn't
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: doing that. I was like, honey, is this your first
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: day on the internet? Because I really don't have time
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: for extreme purists because I feel like, like it's that,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: if you're not hitting all of these hoops, you're like
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: a bad person. It's like, no, can we just stop
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the transphobes and, you know, the people committing genocide, please?
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: Can we just maybe focus on that? Like, not everybody's
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: perfect and to expect perfection is like you're just pushing failure. Like, goddammit,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: it's just, it feels so performative to me as well. It's, no, no,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to stop. But for reading, I love point horror. Like,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I haven't read anything that made me feel the way
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: that point horror made me feel as a teenager. Like,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: I love, I love a proper... like a proper horror story.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: And every time I try and look one up, it's
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: always like, there's like spooky fantasy things. And I'm like, no, no, no.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: I want a reasonable horror. Like, make it good. Make
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: me panic when the door opens. Like, I just want
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of that, you know. So I would
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: like recommendations on that. And If you haven't read Point Horror,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: my favourite Point Horror is The Boyfriend because every time
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: I think about it, I smell soap. Like proper soapy soap. Like,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: you know, like proper soap. Like that is, that is it.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: That's what I think of. So there's that. So if
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: you do want to read some 1990s teen horror, do that.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: So for watching, you know what? Coyote versus Acme. I
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: felt feelings and I was watching this and I was
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: just like, oh my God. But like I took my
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: daughter to see it, right? And my son, obviously, I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: didn't leave him behind. And I was showing them the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: poster beforehand and I'm just like pointing out the characters
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: on the poster because eventually we have to watch Who
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Framed Roger Rabbit because it's a classic. But I need
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: them to know who the other characters are and find
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: out who these characters are so that they'll anyway but
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: we're watching this and we're looking at the poster and
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: my daughter is looking at some of the stuff and
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: she goes oh there's a rabbit and I'm like there's
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: a rabbit that's Bugs Bunny that is that's Bugs Bunny
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: hmm it's like that's Bugs Bunny I have not raised
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: you correctly so yeah I really enjoyed Coyote vs Acme
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I had a really good time the kids enjoyed it
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: too and I mean it was the right form of
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: nostalgia and I was going to go see it anyway
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I just happened to have the kids and I was
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: like we're going to go see this movie kids but
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: now I have to go watch I don't know something
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: else with them but yes I enjoyed it it was
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: great and I didn't think I would get so emotional
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: so There's that. Also, like, it was so funny. So
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: I took the kids to go see it. And that
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: night I'm like tucking my daughter into bed. And as
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: I'm tucking her in, she goes, mommy. And I go, what?
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: And she goes, beep, beep. But for listening, I am
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: going to recommend my friend Anne's podcast, which is Vulgar History.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: So she's doing Tudor season right now. And this next
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: month is all about Anne Boleyn. And I have opinions
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: about Anne Boleyn. You know what? I'm going to share
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: it here because why not? I actually have a whole
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: series where I did like the whole six wives of
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Henry VIII. We only really had two wives. Anyway, no, right?
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: So I don't even think Henry believed that. So here's
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: the thing, right? So... The idea of annulment and divorce
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: are very different. They're a little bit different then as
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: they are now. Because here's the thing. When a divorce happens,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: regardless of whomever, wherever, the whole thing was, if you
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: got divorced, you could not get married if your spouse
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: was still alive. That was a thing way back then.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: And that was very much the Catholic belief. So here's
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: the thing about Henry VIII, right? Henry VIII was very,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: very religious. He prayed twice a day. Now, I don't
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: know if he ever really believed that he was changing
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: the religion. Because the funny thing about Anglicanism, right, the
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Church of England, is that it's basically Catholicism light. That
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: is like a tiny couple of tweaks, right? And it's
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: not even... A huge thing. So I think he was
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: still very much like Catholic bound in his brain, you know,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: that he believed that. But he just thought that he,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: you know, he believed in the divine right of kings
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and that he was where he was by God. And
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: so I think it's a bit more wobbly than people
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: like to think it is. And so in accordance with
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: the Catholic Church, if you got divorced, like you could
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: not remarry if your ex-wife was still alive. So when
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: he breaks away from the church, because he's changed religion,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: you know, he's like, oh no, I can legally marry.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: He's like, oh, we're annulled. I don't recognise that marriage
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: because it's annulled because of Arthur, right? There was a
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: reason like this because he had the Bible verse to
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: go along with it. So he convinced himself of this.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: I also think that he was a bit like mental illness.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Like I have a whole big thing about that with Henry, but...
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: He will get his own episode one day when I
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: can be fucking bothered to talk about kings. But with
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Anne Boleyn, you see, with Anne Boleyn, when they get
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: their whole annulment, like the whole council against her, what's
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: interesting is that as Queen of England, the only person
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: who has authority to remove her Like, as Queen of England,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: as the king. He is the only one who is
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: higher than her in that hierarchy, you know? And because
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: he wasn't at the trail and he wasn't doing that,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: he wasn't really involved, per se. So, yeah. So he's like, yeah,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: we're totally annulled. And that's a thing that happened. But
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think he believed it was an annulment. I
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: think he believed it was a divorce. Because... He... killed her. Like,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: he had her executed. He made sure that she was
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: dead before he remarried. Now, his execution of Catherine, however,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: I feel that was just anger, right? I don't know
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: if he ever actually consummated his marriage with Catherine Howard,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that ever happened because, you know,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: he was pushing a wee bit. But he definitely didn't
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: do anything with Anne of Cleves, which is why when
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: their divorce came through, he was like, we're cool because
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: there was never that thing there. Whereas with the concept
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: of adultery with Catherine Howard, it was shaming him. And
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: if he had attempted, and I think even the fact
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: that he had attempted it, to consummate the marriage then
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: yeah either way either way right I think he executed
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Anne Boleyn so he could marry Jane Seymour because if
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: he'd kept her alive which he could have done he
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: could have had an annulment he could have easily, like,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: sent her away, right? Her and Elizabeth, like, here's some money,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: go to France, don't come near me, whatevs, right? Could
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: have been a thing he did, but he was always
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: very extreme with everything he wanted to do. But I
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: genuinely believe that... Like, he thought they had an actual
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: marriage and that it wasn't an ult. It was a
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: divorce in his mind. And that's the reason he had
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: to execute her. But that's that. That's my theory. That's
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: my theory. But anyway, that's that. Listen to Vulgar History.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: Listen to Anne. She may not have the same theory
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: as I do. But that's the wonderful thing about it.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: It's history. We all have to interpret the stuff people
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: wrote down. So with that, I shall bid you adieu.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Good night, everybody. Adios. Au revoir. And au revoir, my friends. Bye-bye.