Although part of Kosovo’s legal system, the institution is headquartered in The Hague and staffed by international judges and personnel — which is how Mr. Smith, a U.S. citizen, wound up serving as its specialist prosecutor. It is always difficult and risky to prosecute national leaders with some popularity among their people. Even so, the Truman administration quietly undercut that pledge of unconditional surrender for Emperor Hirohito, fearing that the Japanese might fight on if he was prosecuted as a war criminal. The Truman administration left the emperor securely in the Imperial Palace while his prime ministers and generals were tried and convicted by an Allied international military tribunal in Tokyo. At an earlier point in his career, from 2008 to 2010, Mr. Smith worked as the investigation coordinator in the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, the permanent international war crimes tribunal based in The Hague.

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Persons: Smith hewed, Smith, Hashim Thaci, Trump, Thaci, Augusto Pinochet’s, Truman, Emperor Hirohito, John Bolton, ”, Mike Pompeo Organizations: United Nations, Kosovo, Chambers, White, Kosovo Liberation Army, Allied, Criminal Court Locations: Nuremberg, Tokyo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Serbia, The Hague, U.S, Kosovo, Chile, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Imperial, Afghanistan, Zambia