Prior to this meeting, intimate court sources tell us, Hirohito had been tense and uncertain. Bowers noticed that he was trembling when he arrived (the New York Times interviewer of a day earlier had made a similar observation). He left the meeting buoyed in spirit, visibly more relaxed and confident—obviously with good reason. The emperor immediately told Kido Kōichi about the compliments MacArthur had paid him, and Kido was immensely relieved. As he later noted, if this meeting had not occurred, it would have been exceedingly difficult to defend the emperor against charges of war crimes. On
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