What Role Did the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima
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Volume 17 | Issue 18 | Number 1 | Article ID 5311 | Sep 15, 2019 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus What role did the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet entry into the war play in Japan’s decision to surrender in the Pacific War? Conversations with Tsuyoshi Hasegawa Hibiki Yamaguchi, Fumihiko Yoshida, Radomir Compel Abstract bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You have published numerous books and articles Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a US citizen who was born such as Racing the Enemy in English in Japan, has taught in both countries. Applying and Anto in Japanese his specialized knowledge of Russian history to (Hasegawa 2005Hasegawa, T. 2005. Racing the an analysis of the US decision to drop atomic Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of bombs on Japan, he challenges the prevailing Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University American view that the US decision to drop the Press.[Crossref] ,[Google atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was Scholar], 2006Hasegawa, T. 2006.Anto: justified. The prevailing view is based on two Sutarin, Toruman to Nihon Kohuku [Deadly premises: first, the use of the atomic bombs Struggle: Stalin, Truman and Japan’s was the only option available to the US Surrdner] Tokyo: Chuo Koron Shinsha. [Google government to avoid launching a costlyScholar]). You are also an expert on Russian invasion of the Japanese homeland; and second, history and Russo-Japanese relations. In this the atomic bombings had an immediate and regard, you have recently writtenCrime and direct impact on Japan’s decision to surrender. Punishment in the Russian Dr. Hasegawa rebuts both assumptions. He Revolution (Hasegawa 2017aHasegawa, T. 201 also assesses a third – and often hidden – 7a. Crime and Punishment in the Russian justification for dropping the bombs, namely, Revolution: Mob Justice and Police in the American desire for revenge. He argues Petrograd. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University that, even before the atomic bombings, the Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and The United States had already crossed the moral February Revolution, Petrograd high ground that it had held. He views the US 1917 (Hasegawa 2017bHasegawa, T. 2017b. Th use of atomic bombs as a war crime. But he e February Revolution, Petrograd 1917: The asserts that this action must be understood in End of the Tsarist Regime and the Birth of Dual the context of Japan’s responsibility for starting Power. Leiden: Brill. (Paperback edition, the war of aggression and committing atrocities Chicago: Haymarket Books, in the Asia–Pacific War. 2018).[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). As far as I understand, you have come to the field of the Keywords: Atomic bomb, World War II, Japan’s international historiography of the atomic surrender, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin, war bombings at a relatively late stage of your crimes career as a historian. Hibiki Yamaguchi: We are so honored and Dr. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa: That is correct. But privileged to be here with you to discuss your it might be important and useful to explain my works on the international history of the atomic background as well as the trajectory of my 1 17 | 18 | 1 APJ | JF scholarly interest at the outset. The University of Washington in 1964–1969, like American campuses everywhere, was a I was born in Tokyo in 1941, the year the hotbed of Vietnam War protests and the civil Pacific War began. In 1945, with constant rights movement. Traditional Russian history incendiary bombing in the neighborhood, my was also being challenged by young scholars, family evacuated to the small village ofand it was the beginning of attention to the Iburihashi, now incorporated in the city of social history of the Russian Revolution. Komatsu, Ishikawa prefecture. As a four-year old boy, I do not have clear memories of the I then taught at the State University of New war, but I remember the crimson sky in York at Oswego for eight years. Studying, downtown Tokyo when the city was bombed on teaching, and living in the United States gave March 9-10,1945. Later in August, the adults me an insight into how American society gathered at my grandfather’s house inworked. Impressed by the depth of the roots of Iburihashi to listen to the emperor announce American democracy and the diversity it the termination of the war on the radio. Some offered, I felt more at home and more liberated fragments of the war are still vivid in my in America than in the more regimented Japan, memory. so I became an American citizen in 1976. I grew up in Japan and attended the University American citizenship gave me opportunities to of Tokyo, Komaba campus, where I was the do research in the Soviet Union that were not editor of the university newspaper. It was the available in Japan at that time. I had access to time of large student movements against the archives and established a wide network of renewal of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation relations with scholars. and Security between the United States and Japan (Anpo) in 1960. My close friends divided After long years of research in the Soviet and splintered along various ideological lines. archives, I finally published my first book, The Although I did not belong to any faction, I February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917, in 1981. became interested in socialism and questioned why the Soviet Union, which was founded on When I finished the book, the United States the seemingly utopian vision of socialism, had was going through another important debate, degenerated into the monstrous Stalinist this time, on the nuclear issue. I became regime. This led me to study Russian history, interested in this issue, and retooled myself at especially the Russian Revolution, and I wrote Columbia University, familiarizing myself with my graduation thesis on the Februarythe esoteric knowledge and theories of nuclear Revolution. weapons and strategies of both the United States and the Soviet Union. I was particularly While attending the University of Tokyo, I also interested in arms control as a means to avoid joined a research group on Russian history nuclear war. (Roshiashi Kenkyukai) led by Professor Haruki Wada that exposed me to pioneering research In 1985, I took a position at the Slavic Research liberated from the rigid StalinistCenter of Hokkaido University as the first historiography. foreign permanent professor in Japan, thanks to new legislation that had just been passed. Thanks to a Ford Foundation fellowship, I did my graduate training at the University of I apologize for the long-winded answer, but I do Washington in Seattle in the United States. believe that the uniqueness of my trajectory in There I wrote my PhD dissertation on the life and scholarly background is important to February Revolution. understanding my research. I have lived in 2 17 | 18 | 1 APJ | JF three vastly different societies and I am fluent Soviet Union in the ending drama. So that in Japanese, English, and Russian. Because of triggered my interest. Originally, I was going to my background, facility for languages, and write an article or a short book on Russia’s diverse scholarly interests in both Russian influence on Japan’s decision-making, but the history and nuclear issues, I think mymore I studied, I thought it’s not enough to perspective is different from that of most study Russo-Japanese relations because it’s so scholars who have not had such experiences. connected with international relations, and one had to, of course, bring the United States into Now, finally to answer your question, my stay the picture. at the Slavic Research Center coincided with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika, Looking at American historiography of the an exciting period that mesmerized not only ending of the Pacific War, Russia is almost every specialist on Russia, but also every absent. So I decided to study this issue, and I specialist on international history. While spent many years examining the archives and following developments in the Soviet Union, I documents in the United States, Russia, and became interested in the new era of Soviet- Japan. The end result is Racing the Enemy. This Japanese relations and the thorny Northern is the first international history of the subject. Territories issue. I found the perspective on this issue by both Japan and the Soviet Union In a way, with Racing the Enemy, I returned to unsatisfactory, with both sides driven by the roots of my childhood memory of the Pacific narrow nationalism. There was no room for a War, trying to place the fragments of my meeting point while the world was radically memory into the full historical background. changing before our eyes. Taking advantage of the American debate on The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on perestroika and the new scholarly approach to Japan: Two False Assumptions nationalism and ethnicity, as well as the new impetus for international history in the United Yamaguchi: So why did you choose the issue States, I wanted to enter the discussion to of the atomic bombings in particular among bridge the gap. So I wrote a book on Russo- various events in the last months of World War Japanese relations and the Northern Territories II? both in English and in Japanese (Hasegawa 1998Hasegawa, T. 1998.The Hasegawa: I must stress that this book is not Northern Territories Dispute and Russo- merely about the atomic bombings; it covers Japanese Relations. International & Area broader issues of international history. For Studies: University of California.[Google instance, the last chapter is devoted to the Scholar]; intricate negotiations between US President Hasegawa 2000Hasegawa, T. 2000.Hoppo Harry Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin Ryodo Mondai to Nichiro Kankei [The Northern on the territorial settlement over the Kuril Territories Question and Russo-Japanese Islands.