was a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

editor, author, critic, and translator. As the first chief editor of ''

SF Magazine is a science fiction magazine published by Hayakawa Shobō in Japan. It was Japan’s first successful science fiction prozine. History ''S-F Magazine'' was established in 1960. It began publication with the February 1960 issue, which appea ...

'', he helped popularize science fiction in Japan and became known as the "Demon of SF". His real name is . He also used the pen name: .

Biography

Born in Toyohara,

Karafuto Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949. Karafuto became t ...

(now Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin), Fukushima was the son of a public official. His family moved to

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

after his father's transfer in 1934. In 1937 they moved to the mainland of Japan. Fukushima grew up in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. He entered

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

in 1945 and transferred to

Meiji University , abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...

in 1950, where he majored in French literature. In 1954 he dropped out and began to study translation under and writing

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

under . In 1956, Fukushima was invited to join

Hayakawa Publishing Corporation Hayakawa (written: 早川) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Chuko Hayakawa (born 1945), Japanese politician * Hiromi Hayakawa (1982–2017), Mexican singer *, Japanese swimmer *Kenichi Hayakawa (born 1986), Japanese ...

(). The following year, he initiated the ''Hayakawa SF series'' and in 1959 founded ''

'' and served as chief editor until he left the company in 1969. ''Hayakawa World SF Complete Collection'' was also planned by Fukushima. He aimed to make SF more highbrow, and initially rejected

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...

. To avoid being considered "childish literature", Fukushima adopted exclusively the paintings of Seikan Nakajima for the covers of ''SF Magazine'' and ''Hayakawa SF series''
(see covers)
He, along with

Shinichi Sekizawa was a Japanese screenwriter noted for his immense contributions to several films by Ishirō Honda, including several classic Godzilla films. He also contributed material to the original ''Ultraman'' series and several Tōei Dōga films such as ' ...

, wrote the 1974 film

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla is a 1974 Japanese Kaiju, ''kaiju'' film directed by Jun Fukuda, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Distributed by Toho and produced under their effects subsidiary Toho–Eizo, it is the 14th film of the Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla ...

. Beside his work in widening the Japanese SF genre, he translated many English SF authors, including

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

, Arthur C. Clarke, and

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...

, into Japanese and edited SF anthologies. Fukushima died in 1976, aged 47. There is a prize for Juvenile SF in his memory.

Works in English translation

* "The Flower's Life Is Short" (''Speculative Japan'', Kurodahan Press, 2007)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fukushima, Masami 1929 births 1976 deaths Japanese speculative fiction critics Japanese speculative fiction editors Japanese science fiction writers Science fiction editors Science fiction critics English–Japanese translators Nihon University alumni People from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 20th-century Japanese translators