Patrick Geoghegan

speaker

1,107 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 7 Aug

Patrick Geoghegan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.

Appearances

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Talking History with Patrick Geoghegan · The History of the Masquerade · 5 Aug 2026 podcast

Can we start with that big question about Tojo and the controversy around him?

And for some, he was seen as Japan's Hitler.

For some, he was blamed for everything to do with Japan entering the Second World War and their leadership there.

But it's a more nuanced portrait of him that we see here.

He had a strategic vision.

He had a coherent vision.

It just wasn't a successful vision.

And his ambitions and his plans, despite him being this tactical genius and despite him having all of these insights, it ended up completely unraveling for him.

You have an absolutely brilliant description of him near the start of the book.

You describe him as the apex political predator in wartime Japanese politics.

And then you go on to say that, stated simply, Tojo was the single most accomplished political operator in Tokyo's halls of power during the first two decades of Hirohito's reign from 1926 to 1945.

So what made him so successful?

What made him the single most accomplished political operator?

And I think it's brilliant the way you explore and tease out the relationship with the emperor.

And, you know, it's a much more nuanced relationship than Hirohito being a simple puppet or Hirohito being the villain.

There's a very interesting dynamic between the two of them and they each have their own visions, but then they find ways of accommodating each other.

I was astonished to discover that Tojo himself only discovered that the Navy had an attack plan for Pearl Harbor.

And he learned this only days before it was launched.

And he learned it not because he was the prime minister, but because he was a general serving as army minister.

And that just seems completely bizarre that he wouldn't be directly in the loop or directly planning things.

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