1941–
A historian who recast the international history of Japan's surrender
Japan's surrender in August 1945 cannot be explained by the atomic bomb alone.
Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is a Japanese-American historian of modern Russian and Soviet history, the Cold War, and Russo-Japanese relations. His work ranges across the Russian Revolution, Soviet-Japanese relations, and the international history of the Pacific War's end, linking diplomacy to social and political change. His major book, Racing the Enemy, reopened debate over Japan's surrender by arguing that the Soviet declaration of war and invasion in August 1945, not the atomic bombings alone, decisively altered Japan's strategic options.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1964Graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Liberal Arts
- 1969Earned a PhD at the University of Washington
- 1970년대Taught history at the State University of New York at Oswego
- 1980–1981Published The February Revolution: Petrograd, 1917
- 1980년대–1990년대Taught at Hokkaido University’s Slavic Research Center
- 1998Published The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations
- 2005Published Racing the Enemy and received the Robert Ferrell Award
- 2016Retired as professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Related historical events
- 1917.02–07The February RevolutionHistorian of the February RevolutionHe published a study of the February Revolution in Petrograd in 1980.
- 1945.08The Soviet Entry into the War against JapanHistorian who shaped the interpretation of the war's endHe argued that Soviet entry, not the atomic bomb alone, decisively altered Japan's strategic and diplomatic options.
The social history of the Russian Revolution and Petrograd
Hasegawa's research expanded beyond the political course of the Russian Revolution to examine social experience during the revolutionary period. He published a study of the February Revolution in Petrograd in 1980, then returned to the subject in a revised and expanded edition in 2017. In that work he reassessed liberals as active participants in the revolution, analyzing it as both the collapse of the tsarist regime and the emergence of dual power.
Another strand of his research focuses on crime, policing, and mob justice in revolutionary Petrograd. Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution (2017) explores the social history of the period by examining police institutions alongside popular practices of justice. In 2024 he published The Last Tsar, on Nicholas II's abdication and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. Together, these works show Hasegawa treating the revolution not only as a history of political leaders and institutions, but also as a transformation in social action and order.