Jojiro Okami

Jojiro Okami

Original Name 丘美 丈二郎
Born October 31, 1918
Osaka, Japan
Died December 11, 2003 (85)

Former air officer and detective novelist. He wrote for several science fiction magazines in the late 40s and early 50s. Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka especially loved his works and invited Okami to provide a plot synopsis for several sci-fi films. Okami first provided the story for The Mysterians (1957) in novel format, with an eye towards republishing it as a serial for one of his magazines. Shigeru Kayama, one of his contemporaries (who also wrote the story for the original Godzilla a few years earlier) was brought in to embellish Okami’s original novel for the screen. Notable elements inserted by Kayama and Tanaka were the giant alien robot Mogera, and the aliens’ plot to kidnap Earth women. The Mysterians novel itself was never published, despite Tanaka’s best efforts.

His novella Space Mons was the basis for Dogora, the Space Monster (1964).

Original Name 丘美 丈二郎
Born October 31, 1918
Osaka, Japan
Died December 11, 2003 (85)

Former air officer and detective novelist. He wrote for several science fiction magazines in the late 40s and early 50s. Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka especially loved his works and invited Okami to provide a plot synopsis for several sci-fi films. Okami first provided the story for The Mysterians (1957) in novel format, with an eye towards republishing it as a serial for one of his magazines. Shigeru Kayama, one of his contemporaries (who also wrote the story for the original Godzilla a few years earlier) was brought in to embellish Okami’s original novel for the screen. Notable elements inserted by Kayama and Tanaka were the giant alien robot Mogera, and the aliens’ plot to kidnap Earth women. The Mysterians novel itself was never published, despite Tanaka’s best efforts.

His novella Space Mons was the basis for Dogora, the Space Monster (1964).