was a Lieutenant Colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

  in the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 during World War II. He was brother-in-law to General Takeshi Mori

Takeshi Mori (commander)

- Notes :...

, commander of the First Imperial Guards Division, in charge of defending Tokyo and the surrounding region.

Very early on the morning of 15 August 1945, Shiraishi was in his brother-in-law's office when Mori was visited by Major Kenji Hatanaka

Kenji Hatanaka

' was a Japanese soldier, who was one one of the chief conspirators in the plot to seize the Imperial Palace and to prevent the broadcast of Emperor Hirohito's surrender speech.-Military Career:...

, Lt. Col. Masataka Ida

Masataka Ida

Lt. Col. ' was a young soldier in the Military Affairs Section of the Japanese Ministry of War, at the end of World War II. He had been stationed on Formosa , but was ordered back to Tokyo early in 1945...

, and Captain Shigetaro Uehara, who sought Mori's aid in a coup

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

. They wished to seize the Imperial Palace

Kokyo

is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda area of Tokyo close to Tokyo Station and contains several buildings including the main palace , the emperor left Kyoto Imperial Palace for Tokyo...

 and prevent the Emperor's declaration of Japan's surrender

Gyokuon-hoso

The , lit. "Jewel Voice Broadcast", was the radio broadcast in which Japanese emperor Hirohito read out the , announcing to the Japanese people that the Japanese Government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military at the end of World War II...

. Mori refused the conspirators, and Uehara allegedly made to kill the General with his sword; Shiraishi leapt in front of his brother-in-law, and was killed himself. Mere moments later, Hatanaka murdered General Mori.