From April 1945, when Stalin broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and Harry Truman assumed the presidency, to the final Soviet military actions against Japan, Hasegawa brings to light the real reasons Japan surrendered. From Washington to Moscow to Tokyo and back again, he shows us a high-stakes diplomatic game as Truman and Stalin sought to outmaneuver each other in forcing Japan’s surrender; as Stalin dangled mediation offers to Japan while secretly preparing to fight in the Pacific; as Tokyo peace advocates desperately tried to stave off a war party determined to mount a last-ditch defense; and as the Americans struggled to balance their competing interests of ending the war with Japan and preventing the Soviets from expanding into the Pacific.

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is Professor Emeritus of California Univesity in Santa Barbara. He was born in Japan, had a bachelor degree in the University of Tokyo in 1964, then studied in USA, The University of Washington, where he graduated with a PhD in Philosophy. He is the author of The February Revolution: Petrograd, 1917, The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations and Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution: Mob Justice and Police in Petrograd.