Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa (長谷川 毅, Hasegawa Tsuyoshi^?, born 1941)^[1] is a Japanese historian, currently teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is director of the Cold War Studies program. His current field of research includes the political history of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Soviet–Japanese relations. He also reads and speaks English, Japanese, and Russian which gives him a different perspective when analyzing Soviet-Japanese-US relations.

Education

Hasegawa received his Ph.D. from University of Washington in 1969.^[2]

Racing the Enemy

In Racing the Enemy, Hasegawa puts forward the view that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the main decisive factor in the Japanese decision to surrender, ending World War II, specifically the Pacific Theater. Instead, Hasegawa looks to the breaking of the Neutrality Pact by the Soviet Union, and the imminent fall of Manchuria and Korea to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.^[3] Professor Hasegawa distinguishes his viewpoint from earlier critics of the bombing who argued that Truman's underlying concern was to showcase US military prowess as a deterrent to Stalin's ambitions. Rather, he emphasizes influences on Japanese decision making independent of the atomic events. Geoffery Jukes, writing in an academic press affiliated with the University of Melbourne, summed it up thusly: "[Professor Hasegawa] demonstrates conclusively that it was the Soviet declaration of war, not the atomic bombs, that forced the Japanese to surrender unconditionally."^[4]

Publications

• Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan. The Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0674016934

• The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations. Vol. 1: Between War and Peace, 1967–1985. Vol. 2: Neither War Nor Peace, 1985–1998. (Berkeley: International and Area Studies Publications, University of California at Berkeley, 1998.)

• Edited with Jonathan Haslam and Andrew Kuchins, Russia and Japan: An Unresolved Dilemma between Distant Neighbors (UC Berkeley, International and Area Studies, 1993).

• Roshia kakumeika petorogurado no shiminseikatsu ["Everyday Life of Petrograd during the Russian Revolution"] (Chuokoronsha, 1989).

• The February Revolution of Petrograd, 1917 (U. Washington Press, 1981). Table of Contents, Precis.

References

External links

• Hasegawa's UCSB History Department faculty page