You Only Live Twice (novel) the previous novel, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". James Bond is drinking and gambling heavily and making mistakes on his assignments when, as a last resort, he is sent to Japan on a semi-diplomatic mission. Whilst there he is challenged by the Head of the Japanese Secret Service to kill Dr. Guntram Shatterhand. Bond realises that Shatterhand is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and sets out on a revenge mission to kill him and his wife, Irma Bunt. The novel deals on a personal level with the change in Bond from a depressed man in mourning, to a man of action bent
You Only Live Twice (film) reaches the American craft. The Americans stand down their forces. Blofeld, who had earlier killed Osato to demonstrate the price of failure to Bond, activates the base's self-destruct system, a bomb that triggers a volcanic eruption and escapes. Bond, Kissy, Tanaka, and the surviving ninjas leave before the eruption destroys the base, and are picked up by the Japanese Maritime Forces and the British Secret Service. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was the intended next film, but the producers decided to adapt "You Only Live Twice" instead because "OHMSS" would require searching for high and snowy locations. Lewis Gilbert originally