Shunrō Oshikawa

Shunrō Oshikawa (押川 春浪, Oshikawa Shunrō^?, real name 押川 方存 Oshikawa Masaari March 21, 1876 - November 16, 1914), was a Japanese author, journalist and editor, best known as a pioneer of science fiction.

While studying law at Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō (present day Waseda University) at the turn of the century, Oshikawa published Kaitō Bōken Kidan: Kaitei Gunkan (海島冒険奇譚 海底軍艦 lit. "Undersea Warship: A Fantastic Tale of Island Adventure"), the story of an armoured, ram-armed submarine in a future history of war between Japan and Russia.

The novel reflects the imperialist ambitions of Japan at the time, and foreshadowed the Russo-Japanese War that followed in 1904, driven by much the same motivation.

Like other early science fiction writers of the period, he was influenced by the stories of Jules Verne, whose technological adventure novels had become popular in translation in the rapidly modernising Meiji era Japan. Specifically, the above-mentioned speculative conception of submarine warfare, based on ramming and making no mention of torpedoes, is shared with Verne (see "Facing the Flag", "HMS Sword").

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