Professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa was awarded UCSB faculty’s top honor yesterday, March 4. A professor of history at UCSB, Hasegawa is an internationally recognized authority on Japanese-Russian relations and co-founder of UCSB’s Center for Cold War Studies. He has been named Faculty Research Lecturer for 2010.

Hasegawa published the work he is perhaps most known for in 2005. In Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, he argued that it was not the atomic bomb that caused Japan to surrender at the end of the second World War but fear of the Soviet Union’s growing military power. Hasegawa has published 15 books and more than 250 articles, essays, and book chapters in English, Japanese, and Russian.

“Dr. Hasegawa’s scholarly achievements extend beyond his own discipline of history,” said Howard Giles, professor of communication and a member of the 2010 Faculty Research Lecturer Committee. “Writing in the English, Japanese, and Russian languages, he has challenged established ways of explaining important historical events. He has radically changed the way global history is now cast and has made extraordinary contributions to our understanding of civilization.”

In remarks upon accepting the award, Hasegawa, who received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1969, expressed gratitude and also hope for the future of research in the humanities. “I am truly honored and, at the same time, extremely humbled to be chosen for this year’s Faculty Research Lecturer award from among many, many other deserving scholars on this campus,” said Hasegawa. “I am thrilled to receive this award because it is the university’s recognition of the importance of research in the humanities, especially in history. At a time when this country is going through painful transformations, we are constantly reminded of the importance of humanistic values.”

Hasegawa will give his Faculty Research Lecture on campus, date to be announced. The lecture will be free and open to the public.

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