alternatehistory.com

1944


Abashiri Prison Haikado one of the worst POW camps during world war two, the prison had been converted over into a POW camp and the guards were infamously cruel to the british, American, Australian, and philopino soilgers stuck there. Many people died from mistreatment torture, being killed for minor offenses, and malnutrition.

Then Yoshie Shiratori arrived at the prison. The man had been falsely convicted of a murder he did not commit and managed to escape from Aomori prison, and Akita prison, as an insult the Japanese government placed him not in a Japanese prison but in the infamous POW camp.

Yoshi to his surprise that the POWs were supportive with the American POW in the cell next to him trying to learn Japanese, and sharing his meager rations with him to help him recover his strength, and also slipping a small wire through the tiny grate between them.

Yoshie remembered this kindness and when he escaped by rusting his manacles and grate with miso soup, he silently in the night grabbed some keys from the guard shack. It was raining that night and the guards had managed to get extra alcohol rations and were having an impromptu party. The escaped prisoners grabbed the guards weapons and proceeded to liberate other prisoners.

Then they surrounded the guards and forced them at gun point into the same cells that the prisoners had formerally occupied. Then the 2,000 POWS and Youshie fled into the mountains of Hakido, with the help of a stolen radio they were able to get an American crusier to rescue them.

Yoshie Shiratori the man who organized the escape became an international sensation and would be cleared of all charges in post war japan.

But what if Abashiri hadn't been converted into POW camp of if Yoshie hadn't been sent there or master minded the great escape. How would that have changed history?
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