UCSB Historian to Discuss His Controversial Book about the Atomic Bomb's Role in Ending World War II

The author of a critically acclaimed book about the role of the atomic bomb in Japan's surrender at the end of World War II will deliver a free public lecture on the subject Wednesday, November 2, at 4 p.m. in the McCune Conference Room at UC Santa Barbara.

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a professor of history and co-director of the Center for Cold War Studies at UCSB, will discuss aspects of his popular study, "Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan," published by Harvard University Press. In particular, he says, his focus in this talk will be "Truman and the bomb."

Based upon meticulous, multilingual archival work, Hasegawa's book integrates fully the roles of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan in the war's end. The New York Times Book Review called the book "a brilliant and definitive study of American, Soviet, and Japanese records of the last weeks of the war."

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

The McCune Conference Room is located on the sixth floor of the Humanities and Social Science Building at UCSB.