His group seek to hasten rather than prevent all-out war. Haguro, however, is a nihilist and a misogynist, disgusted by humanity’s excesses and venal desires. The Osugis want to bring harmony to an “unpleasant, disordered” planet. The Osugis are contrasted with a rival alien faction led by resentful academic Haguro. The unassuming Osugi’s lack of interest in consumerism and social climbing marks them out for their neighbours as possible communist sympathisers, bringing a concerned public order official to their door. Mishima brings in references to the disturbing mix of tendencies towards conformity in Japanese culture with its own brand of “red scare” linked to America’s virulent McCarthy era. The Osugis provide an entry point for a searing examination of postwar Japanese society with its conflicted politics, growing materialism and emphasis on social status.

Although as the story unfolds both son and daughter are caught up in “human” distractions. Leading their growing campaign for disarmament is father Juichiro, aided by his wife Iyoko, daughter Akiko and son Kazuo. The Osugi family, who live in the shadow of the Johnson Military Base, believe they have a purpose, to rescue humanity from mass destruction. He intersperses accounts of flying saucers and glimpses of worlds beyond with aspects of Japanese cultural history as well as elements of Noh theatre – another interest of his which he felt had affinities with sf's hidden aliens and monstrous threats. Social critique and science fiction often go hand in hand but Mishima’s take on the subgenre is particularly explicit, marrying intense literary realism, and documentary-like fact with fantastical forms of semi-philosophical debate. His scenario builds on this fascination, as well as on tropes and plot points from commercial SF - his family are not unlike an extension of the pod people in the popular Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Mishima was a huge science fiction fan, as well as part of a Japanese organisation fixated on UFO sightings. It’s centred on a wealthy but nondescript suburban family, the Osugis, who are living with a secret the knowledge that they’re actually extraterrestrials inhabiting earthly bodies. In many ways Mishima’s story reads like a response to Japan’s political predicament but it’s a fairly unusual one. A development that had already caused serious unrest in Japan. A situation that made Japan a particularly vulnerable, potential target, since complicated post-WW2 negotiations had left them with a slew of American bases and a treaty that tied the countries together if an attack should happen. Yukio Mishima’s Beautiful Star was first serialised in the early 1960s in the midst of a growing global crisis, it was the height of the Cold War and relations between the Soviet Union and America were disastrously fraught.

Beautiful star yukio mishima