The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations: Volume 1,
Between War and Peace, 1697-1985; Volume 2, Neither War nor Peace,
1985-1998. By Tsuyoshi Hasegawa. International and Area Studies,
University of California, Berkeley, 1998. Vol. 1: xiii, 216 pages; Vol. 2:
483 pages.
Reviewed by
STEPHEN KOTKIN Journal of Japanese Studies 26.1 (2000): , 26, 1, 270-274.
Princeton University

Although "the world has entered the post-cold-war period," writes Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, "Russia and Japan have stood still, unable to put behind [them]not only the legacies of the cold war, but also the legacies of the war they fought fifty long years ago" (p. 2). To understand and perhaps overcome this enduring stalemate, Hasegawa has written a detailed history of Russo Japanese relations, focused on Japanese irredentism. His handling of the historiography on the islands is wonderfully nuanced...