Richard Poole, one of the Americans who helped draft Japan's Constitution, died Sunday at his home in Virginia, his family said. He was 86.

After World War II, Poole was assigned as a navy officer to the headquarters of the Allied Occupation of Japan, and was a member of the group drafting the postwar Constitution.

Poole worked on the committee that drew up the section making the emperor a symbol of the nation. It was known that he was be appointed to the panel because his birthday of April 29 was the same as that of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa.