Unno Jūza or Unno Jūzō (海野 十三, December 26, 1897 - May 17, 1949) was the pen name of Sano Shōichi (佐野 昌一), the founding father of Japanese science fiction. He was born to a family of medical doctors in Tokushima city. In 1928 he opened his writer’s career with The case of the mysterious death in the electric bath (Denkifuro no kaishijiken). During the Pacific War he wrote a great number of science-fiction novels, remaining in Tokyo throughout the air raids. Japan’s defeat in World War II was for him a hard blow, and Unno spent the last years in his life in a deeply prostrated state.