Byrnes had sought the advice of Cordell Hull, who had been Roosevelt’s deeply respected secretary of state for most of the war, and who had resigned due to ill health in 1944. (Hull had been a major force behind the original planning of the United Nations, and would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for these efforts.) Hull responded that if the Americans agreed to allow the emperor to remain in power, “terrible political repercussions would follow in the United States.”
