---
aliases:
- Henry Stimson
- Henry Lewis Stimson
- H. L. Stimson
- Stimson
born: 1867
category: Political Figure
created: 2026-10-26
died: 1950
location: New York, New York
relations:
- fn: 4
  role: member, Yale class of 1888
  start: 1887
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Skull and Bones]]'
- fn: 8
  role: clerk; admitted to the firm January 1, 1893
  start: 1891
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Root & Clarke]]'
- end: 1909
  fn: 11
  role: United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; rebating indictments
  start: 1906
  type: prosecuted
  with: '[[American Sugar Refining Company]]'
- end: 1913
  fn: 13
  role: Secretary of War
  start: 1911
  type: appointed
  with: '[[William Howard Taft]]'
- end: 1933
  fn: 17
  role: Secretary of State
  start: 1929
  type: appointed
  with: '[[Herbert Hoover]]'
- end: 1945
  fn: 27
  role: Secretary of War, July 10, 1940 to September 21, 1945
  start: 1940
  type: appointed
  with: '[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'
- end: 1945
  fn: 27
  role: Secretary of War
  start: 1940
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[United States Department of War]]'
- fn: 40
  role: chairman; George L. Harrison acted as chairman in his absence
  start: 1945
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Interim Committee]]'
- fn: 50
  role: advised the President on the use of the atomic bomb; struck Kyoto from the
    target list
  start: 1945
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Manhattan Project]]'
- fn: 2
  role: co-author of On Active Service in Peace and War (1948), with Bundy credited
    for the writing
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[McGeorge Bundy]]'
summary: Henry L. Stimson, Skull and Bones member and twice Secretary of War, chaired
  the Interim Committee that advised on the atomic bomb.
tags:
- Person
- SkullAndBones
- BlackChamber
- StimsonDoctrine
- ManhattanProject
- InterimCommittee
- JapaneseAmericanEvacuation
- MorgenthauPlan
- WarDepartment
- StateDepartment
- Kyoto
updated: 2026-10-26
---

Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 to October 20, 1950) was a New York lawyer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Secretary of War under [William Howard Taft](/people/william-howard-taft/), Governor-General of the [Philippines](/places/philippines/), Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover and Secretary of War from July 1940 to September 1945 under [Franklin D. Roosevelt](/people/franklin-d-roosevelt/). He was born in New York City and died at Huntington, Long Island.[^1] His memoir, *On Active Service in Peace and War*, was published in 1948 under his name, with the writing credited to [McGeorge Bundy](/people/mcgeorge-bundy/).[^2]

### Yale, Skull and Bones, and Root & Clarke

Stimson wrote that in the autumn of 1884 he entered [Yale University](/organizations/yale-university/) and joined the class of '88.[^3] The Yale Obituary Record for 1950 to 1951 lists his undergraduate honors as a first Berkeley Premium in Latin composition as a freshman, the first prize in English composition as a sophomore, a Townsend Premium and a philosophical oration appointment as a junior, and the DeForest Prize Medal and an oration appointment as a senior, together with membership in He Boule, Psi Upsilon, [Skull and Bones](/organizations/skull-and-bones/), Chi Delta Theta and Phi Beta Kappa.[^4] The Yale Banner of 1888 prints "Henry Lewis Stimson, of New York City" among the Commencement speakers of June 27, 1888, with the oration "John Hale and the Latitudinarians."[^5]

[Antony C. Sutton](/people/antony-c-sutton/)'s 1983 book on Skull and Bones carries a chart, "Hypothesis Number One," with the title "A Secret Society Dominated By Old Line American Families And New Wealth Has Existed From 1833 To The Present Day." It places the Stimson family among the old-line families around a central circle labeled "The Order," with the date "1635, Watertown, Mass." The chart also lists the Taft family (1679, Braintree, Mass.), the Bundy family (1635, Boston, Mass.) and the Harriman family (railroads). Sutton presented the chart as a hypothesis.[^6] Ron Rosenbaum wrote in [Esquire](/organizations/esquire/) in September 1977 that the society's members included [W. Averell Harriman](/people/w-averell-harriman/), [Henry Luce](/people/henry-luce/) and Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, together with Henry L. Stimson.[^7]

After his admission to the New York County bar in June 1891, Stimson became a clerk in the office of Root & Clarke, the firm of Elihu Root. He was admitted to the firm on January 1, 1893, on the same day as Bronson Winthrop, who became his lifelong partner. The firm took the name Root, Howard, Winthrop & Stimson in 1897, when Clarke retired.[^8] The Obituary Record lists him as a New York lawyer from 1891 to 1950, and as counsel to Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. It gives his marriage as July 6, 1893, in New Haven, to Mabel Wellington White, and his death as due to coronary thrombosis, with burial at Memorial Cemetery, Cold Spring Harbor.[^1]

### Highhold

Stimson described the family's property in the West Hills of the Township of Huntington on Long Island as lying "on the summit of the central ridge of Long Island" and affording "glimpses of the sound on the north and the distant ocean on the south." The family named the place Highhold from that view. He wrote that it had been their home "for forty-four years" when the memoir was written.[^9]

### United States Attorney, Southern District of New York

Stimson was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1906 to 1909, and special assistant to the Attorney General in 1909 and 1910.[^1] The memoir says the first evidence for his rebating prosecutions came from the offices of William Randolph Hearst late in 1905, and that "within five months he had brought seven indictments, and in the following year his office brought fourteen more."[^10]

His most important rebating prosecutions were against the American Sugar Refining Company and the railroads from which it had received rebates. The memoir states that the New York Central Railroad and the sugar company "had been partners in rebating, as Stimson proved in three successive jury trials." The sugar company "fought only one case and then surrendered without a trial on the remaining indictments." Its counsel came to Stimson's office and said: "Damn it, Stimson, we think you're wrong on the law and wrong on the facts, but we can't stand the publicity." The memoir also records Elihu Root's advice after Stimson's first successful trial, that the way to stop rebating was to keep prosecuting until railroads and shippers understood that they would be punished in the courts.[^11]

The memoir describes a second major undertaking, the prosecution of Charles W. Morse for misusing the funds of the Bank of North America.[^12]

### Secretary of War under Taft

Stimson accepted an offer from William Howard Taft to serve as Secretary of War; the Yale Obituary Record gives his term as 1911 to 1913.[^13] The memoir's second chapter, "With Roosevelt and Taft," follows the split between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, during which Stimson remained with Taft's administration.[^14]

### Nicaragua and the Philippines

The Obituary Record lists Stimson as special Presidential representative in [Nicaragua](/places/nicaragua/) in 1927 and Governor General of the Philippine Islands from 1928 to 1929.[^1] The State Department's biography states that between 1918 and 1926 he served only as an occasional envoy to Latin America, mediating a dispute between Chile and Peru in 1925, and that he negotiated an end to the Nicaraguan civil war in 1927 before Calvin Coolidge appointed him Governor General.[^15] The memoir's chapter "As Private Citizen" includes a section titled "The Peace of Tipitapa," on the Nicaragua settlement of 1927, and the following chapter, "Governor General of the Philippines," gives the Philippine years a full treatment under the subheadings "The Background," "A Happy Year" and "Later Disappointments and Some Hopes."[^16]

### Secretary of State and the Black Chamber

Stimson was Secretary of State from March 28, 1929, to March 4, 1933, succeeding Frank Kellogg a few days after the Senate ratified the Kellogg-Briand Pact. He headed the American delegation to the London Naval Conference of 1930 and the Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932.[^17]

In 1929 he closed the State Department's code-breaking office. The memoir says that "he closed down the so-called Black Chamber," which it describes as "the State Department's code-cracking office," and that "This act he never regretted." It adds that "In later years he was to permit and indeed encourage similar labors in another Department, but in later years the situation was different." The memoir gives the reason in these words: "Stimson, as Secretary of State, was dealing as a gentleman with the gentlemen sent as ambassadors and ministers from friendly nations, and, as he later said, 'Gentlemen do not read each other's mail.'" The passage places the decision under the principle that "the way to make men trustworthy is to trust them," and gives no date for the remark.[^18]

The [National Security Agency](/organizations/nsa/) account of the office states that an agreement between the Acting Secretary of State and the Secretary of War in May 1919 created the Cipher Bureau, headed by Herbert Yardley and sponsored by the State Department, with the Army and Navy sharing the budget and the decrypts. It records that Stimson "made a decision to eliminate the Cipher Bureau," that the decision "likely was based on budget considerations, but it has come down to us as based on the need for acting in good faith in international relations," and that in May 1929 the Signal Corps took over cryptology from Military Intelligence and offered Yardley a place at a salary it expected him to refuse. The employees were paid three months' severance in late 1929; they had been paid from "confidential funds" and held no civil service status. The account adds that Yardley charged that Stimson had ended the bureau "strictly for moralistic reasons," and that Stimson did not deny this in his autobiography.[^19]

In his 1931 book, *The American Black Chamber*, Yardley wrote: "The secret activities of the American Black Chamber, which I directed, ceased in 1929." The book's foreword says that "a new Secretary of State ordered the door of the Black Chamber closed and bolted."[^20]

In 1932 Stimson appointed Harvey H. Bundy, a Boston lawyer with experience in finance, as Assistant Secretary of State. The memoir says that the death of a senior officer had left the Department "without a senior officer experienced in economic matters," and that Bundy was appointed to fill that gap.[^21]

### The Stimson Doctrine, 1932

A telegram of January 7, 1932 from the Secretary of State to the Nanking consul general instructed him to deliver a note to the Chinese and Japanese governments. The same instruction went to the ambassador in [Japan](/places/japan/), and the text was repeated to the consul at [Geneva](/places/geneva/) for transmission to the League of Nations. The note stated that the United States "does not intend to recognize any situation, treaty or agreement which may be brought about by means contrary to the covenants and obligations of the Pact of Paris of August 27, 1928."[^22]

The Office of the Historian's essay on the Mukden Incident is titled "The Mukden Incident of 1931 and the Stimson Doctrine." It states that Secretary Stimson "issued the Stimson Doctrine in early 1932," that the United States would not recognize any treaty or agreement between Japan and China that violated American rights or agreements to which it subscribed, and that the policy "proved incredibly ineffectual in the face of on-going Japanese aggression and expansion."[^23] The Department's biography of Stimson states that the doctrine "later became known as" the Stimson Doctrine.[^24]

The memoir's chapter on the Far Eastern crisis has a section headed "From Conciliation to Nonrecognition," and calls nonrecognition "a moral weapon, a moral sanction."[^25]

### Secretary of War, 1940 to 1945

Stimson went to New Haven for the Yale Commencement of June 1940. The memoir says that after addressing the alumni on compulsory military training he prepared a radio speech, delivered on June 18, that "fully set forth his principles and policies in the face of the crisis," and that its delivery put "him squarely on record before he accepted public office."[^26] The National Archives gives the dates of his service as Secretary of War as July 10, 1940, to September 21, 1945; Cordell Hull was Secretary of State from March 4, 1933, to November 20, 1944.[^27]

The Department's principal civilian assistants included [Robert A. Lovett](/people/robert-a-lovett/), who arrived in November 1940 as Stimson's air assistant, [John J. McCloy](/people/john-j-mccloy/), and Robert P. Patterson. The memoir says that "only Patterson of all his civilian assistants was with Stimson from the beginning to the end." Harvey H. Bundy, who had served with Stimson before, is named among the same group.[^28]

### Japanese American evacuation

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians quoted Stimson's diary entry for February 10, 1942, which says: "The second generation Japanese [Nisei] can only be evacuated either as part of a total evacuation, giving access to the areas only by permits, or by frankly trying to put them out on the ground that their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust even the citizen Japanese. This latter is the fact but I am afraid it will make a tremendous hole in our constitutional system to apply it."[^29]

The commission records that Stimson met on February 18, 1942 with officials of the Department of Justice and the War Department about the executive order, and quotes his record of February 17 for the scale of the plan: "It will involve the tremendous task of moving between fifty and one hundred thousand people from their homes and finding temporary support and sustenance for them in the meanwhile, and ultimately locating them in new places away from the coast."[^30]

Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, carried the title "Executive Order Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas."[^31] The commission states that the order "empowered the Secretary of War or his delegate to designate military areas" to which entry of any or all persons could be barred.[^32] On February 20, 1942, Stimson wrote to John L. DeWitt delegating authority to implement the order within the Western Defense Command.[^32]

The commission's summary states that "In May 1944 Secretary Stimson put before President Roosevelt and the Cabinet his position that the exclusion no longer had a military justification." It concludes that the President delayed action "until the first Cabinet meeting following the Presidential election of November 1944," and that "The inescapable conclusion from this factual pattern is that the delay was motivated by political considerations."[^33] Its account of the Cabinet meeting of May 26, 1944 records Francis Biddle noting that the Secretary of War raised "whether it was appropriate for the War Department, at this time, to cancel the Japanese Exclusion Orders and let the Japs go home."[^34] The commission describes McCloy as the "civilian aide to Stimson responsible for Japanese American questions."[^35]

### Bases and big powers, January 1945

On January 23, 1945, Stimson sent Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. a list of points under the heading "Bases and Big Powers," arguing that the four large powers would have to maintain security "during the time necessary to establish a permanent organization of the whole world," and that attempting to formulate the Dumbarton Oaks organization before settling those foundations repeated the error of creating the League of Nations without a prior guarantee of French security. The editors of the Foreign Relations series refer readers to the memoir's discussion at pages 599 to 605.[^36]

### April 25, 1945: the briefing of Truman

Stimson's memorandum of April 25, 1945, prepared with George L. Harrison and approved by [George C. Marshall](/people/george-marshall/) and Major General Leslie R. Groves, began: "Within four months we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history." It stated that no other nation could reach the American position for some years but that this was "practically certain" not to last, and that a system of control would involve "such thorough-going rights of inspection and internal controls as we have never heretofore contemplated." It added that the question of sharing the weapon with other nations "becomes a primary question of our foreign relations."[^37]

His diary for the same day records that he spent the morning on the paper with Harrison, showed it to Marshall and Groves, and then went to the White House by a route chosen so that the reporters waiting in the President's anteroom would not see him with Groves, whom Colonel McCarthy, the Secretary of the General Staff, had brought through underground passages to a room near the President. Stimson showed Truman the memorandum on the political aspects of "S-1," Groves reported on production, and Truman took one copy of the papers while Stimson and Groves kept the other. The same entry records a telephone conversation with McCloy about the war crimes plan for the San Francisco conference, in which Stimson wrote that the British "have come out strongly against having a trial and wish to kill the people offhand," and that Truman "strongly supported our position."[^38]

### The Interim Committee and the Manhattan Project

In April 1945 Stimson set up a committee "charged with the function of advising the President on the various questions raised by our apparently imminent success in developing an atomic weapon." It was known as the Interim Committee, and advised on the atomic weapon then being developed under the [Manhattan Project](/programs/manhattan-project/). The memoir states that Stimson was its chairman, but that the "principal labor of guiding its extended deliberations" fell to George L. Harrison, who acted as chairman in Stimson's absence. The memoir lists its other members as James F. Byrnes, Ralph A. Bard, William L. Clayton, Vannevar Bush, Karl T. Compton and James B. Conant.[^39]

The notes of the committee's meeting of Thursday, May 31, 1945, taken by its secretary, Second Lieutenant R. Gordon Arneson, list Stimson as chairman and present with the committee members the scientists [J. Robert Oppenheimer](/people/j-robert-oppenheimer/), Enrico Fermi, Arthur H. Compton and Ernest O. Lawrence, and, by invitation, Marshall, Groves, Harvey H. Bundy and Arthur Page. The notes open with Stimson explaining that the committee "had been appointed by him with the approval of the President, to make recommendations on temporary war-time controls, public announcement, legislation and post-war organization," and that Marshall shared with him the responsibility for recommendations to the President on the military aspects.[^40]

The notes record the discussion of Russia. Byrnes feared that if information were given to the Russians even in general terms, "Stalin would ask to be brought into the partnership." Marshall favored building a combination of like-minded powers and raised the question whether two prominent Russian scientists should be invited to witness the test. Oppenheimer suggested that the subject be opened with the Soviets tentatively and in the most general terms. The notes record the view, "generally agreed to by all present," that the United States should stay ahead in production and research while making every effort to better its political relations with Russia.[^40]

The afternoon session took up the effect of bombing on the Japanese. The notes state the conclusion "on which there was general agreement" as Stimson expressed it: that "we could not give the Japanese any warning," that the bomb should not be concentrated on a civilian area, but that the committee "should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible." At Conant's suggestion Stimson agreed that the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers' houses. Groves objected to several simultaneous strikes. Under a separate heading, Groves stated that the program had been "plagued since its inception by the presence of certain scientists of doubtful discretion and uncertain loyalty," and the meeting agreed that nothing could be done about dismissing them until after the bomb had been used or at least tested. The notes close with the next meeting set for June 1, 1945, at 11:00 a.m. in the Secretary of War's office, to hear four representatives of industry.[^40]

On June 6, 1945, Arneson wrote to Harrison that the notes of "the Thursday and Friday meetings" indicated the following action: that the committee, "while recognizing that the final selection of the target is essentially a military decision," recommended that the bomb be used against Japan as soon as possible, that it be used on a dual target, "that is, a military installation or war plant surrounded by or adjacent to homes or other buildings most susceptible to damage," and that it be used without prior warning. The memorandum also recommended that the committee advise the Secretary that there might be advantage in a small military panel on the highest level to discuss with him the type of target and the timing.[^41]

The memoir records that the committee "on June 1, recommended that the bomb should be used against Japan, without specific warning, as soon as possible, and against such a target as to make clear its devastating strength." It continues: "The ultimate responsibility for the recommendation to the President rested upon me, and I have no desire to veil it."[^42]

Stimson's memorandum of a conference with Truman on June 6, 1945, begins with the dispute with Charles de Gaulle over French troop movements into Italian territory, in which Stimson told Truman he had come to regard de Gaulle as psychopathic and that the President shared the opinion. It then reports that Byrnes had already told the President of the committee's work, and Stimson's account of its points of agreement: no revelation to Russia or others until the weapon had been successfully used on Japan, and an international committee of control with full power of inspection. Truman said he was thinking of the Polish, Rumanian, Yugoslavian and Manchurian settlements as the quid pro quo for bringing the Soviets into a partnership. In the same conference Stimson told Truman that he was holding down area bombing of Japan because he feared the United States would get "the reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities," and that the Air Force might leave Japan so thoroughly bombed that the new weapon would lack "a fair background to show its strength," at which, the memorandum records, Truman laughed and said he understood.[^43]

### Potsdam, July 1945

The first test of the weapon in New Mexico took place on July 16, 1945, while Stimson was at Potsdam. Harrison's coded telegram of that date to Stimson reads: "Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations." Stimson's diary records that he took the first message to the President's house at 7:30 p.m. and showed it to Truman and Byrnes.[^44]

On July 16 Stimson sent Truman a memorandum on the conduct of the war with Japan, urging that "we are at the psychological moment to commence our warnings to Japan," and recommending a warning delivered during the conference, with "the full force of our newer weapons" to follow if Japan persisted. His diary for July 17 records that Byrnes "was opposed to a prompt and early warning to Japan which I had first suggested," and that he outlined a timetable the President had apparently agreed to, so Stimson "pressed it no further."[^45] On July 20 Stimson proposed changing the words "until her unconditional capitulation" in the draft proclamation to "until she ceases to resist," observing that a capitulation was defined in his only dictionary as "a conditional surrender; a treaty."[^46]

On July 21 Groves's special report on the test reached Stimson by courier. Stimson's diary describes it as "an immensely powerful document," states that it revealed "far greater destructive power than we expected," and records that he read it to Truman and Byrnes, who were "immensely pleased," and that the President said it "gave him an entirely new feeling of confidence."[^47]

On July 25 Stimson met [Joseph Stalin](/people/joseph-stalin/) at Potsdam for eighteen minutes and spoke of the Teheran and Yalta conferences and the Pacific war. His memorandum of the conversation records Stalin saying that "Three Power intervention in the Pacific would surely speed up victory."[^48]

### Kyoto

Harrison cabled Stimson on July 21 that all his local military advisers "definitely favor your pet city," meaning Kyoto, and would like to use it as first choice if those on the scene selected it from the four possible targets.[^49] Stimson replied on July 23, asking for the date and for the name of the target or alternates, "always excluding the particular place against which I have decided," and adding: "My decision has been confirmed by highest authority." The Foreign Relations editors print his diary entries for the period. On July 22 Truman "strongly confirmed my view and said he felt the same way." General Henry H. Arnold told Stimson he agreed "about the target which I had struck off the program." On July 24 Stimson gave Truman his reasons again, and Truman was "particularly emphatic in agreeing" that a "wanton act" at Kyoto "might make it impossible during the long post-war period to reconcile the Japanese to us in that area rather than to the Russians."[^50]

In the Harper's article Stimson wrote: "With President Truman's warm support I struck off the list of suggested targets the city of Kyoto. Although it was a target of considerable military importance, it had been the ancient capital of Japan and was a shrine of Japanese art and culture. We determined that it should be spared. I approved four other targets including the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."[^51]

### The Hiroshima decision and the 1947 Harper's article

The memoir states that "It was in the fall of 1941 that the question of atomic energy was first brought directly to my attention." It describes Stimson's article in Harper's Magazine of February 1947 as "a careful record of his personal connection with this issue."[^52]

The article was reprinted in the *Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists* of February 1947. It prints the memorandum of July 2, 1945, which proposed a warning to Japan and stated: "I personally think that if in saying this we should add that we do not exclude a constitutional monarchy under her present dynasty, it would substantially add to the chances of acceptance." Stimson wrote of that memorandum: "It was designed to promise destruction if Japan resisted, and hope, if she surrendered," and that the atomic bomb was not mentioned in it because "on grounds of secrecy the bomb was never mentioned except when absolutely necessary, and furthermore, it had not yet been tested." He wrote that the Potsdam ultimatum of July 26 "very closely followed" the memorandum "with the exception that it made no mention of the Japanese Emperor," and that on July 28 Premier Suzuki rejected it by announcing that it was "unworthy of public notice."[^51]

The article states that "all the evidence I have seen indicates that the controlling factor in the final Japanese decision to accept our terms of surrender was the atomic bomb," and, of the two bombs, that "The two atomic bombs which we had dropped were the only ones we had ready, and our rate of production at the time was very small." It describes Hiroshima as an army center and Nagasaki as a naval and industrial city. Its closing passage reads: "The decision to use the atomic bomb was a decision that brought death to over a hundred thousand Japanese. No explanation can change that fact and I do not wish to gloss it over."[^51] The two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The memoir's introduction states that "The writing of the book has been the work of Mr. McGeorge Bundy. Its style and composition are his."[^53] Bundy's note at the end of the book describes the sources as "two: Mr. Stimson himself and his records," and describes the diary as beginning in 1910, with "a long account of the period May, 1911 to March, 1913, written in the spring of the latter year," sporadic entries between 1913 and 1926, and a separate manuscript volume of entries made overseas in 1918.[^54]

### The Morgenthau Plan

On September 5, 1944, Stimson sent Roosevelt, through Hull, his comments on a Cabinet Committee paper on the treatment of Germany. He wrote that "With the exception of the last paragraph I find myself in agreement with the principles stated therein." The paragraph called for the German standard of living to be "held down to subsistence levels" and for German economic position in Europe to be eliminated.[^55] Henry Morgenthau Jr. wrote to Stimson on September 6, 1944: "I do not remember anybody suggesting closing down the Saar."[^55]

Stimson's memorandum of September 9, 1944 set out his objection to the Morgenthau proposal: "The fundamental remedy of Mr. Morgenthau is to provide that the industry of Germany shall be substantially obliterated."[^56] The editors of the Foreign Relations series state that Stimson's diary for September 7, 8 and 9, 1944 shows that the enclosures were prepared with the assistance of McCloy, and that Stimson presented them at a meeting between the Cabinet Committee on Germany and Roosevelt on September 9.[^57]

### Papers and diaries

Stimson's papers for the years before 1933 were placed on deposit in the Yale University Library in 1949 and became a gift on February 11, 1952.[^58] They are held by the Manuscripts and Archives department as the Henry Lewis Stimson papers, MS 465.[^59] The National Security Archive's collection of atomic bomb documents prints diary entries of April 25, May 14 and 15, June 6 and July 1945 from the Stimson Diary at Yale, with a microfilm copy at the Library of Congress.[^38] The editors of the Foreign Relations series cite Stimson's diary for September 1944 to the "Stimson Papers."[^57]

[^1]: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1950-1951 (New Haven: Yale University, 1951), entry "Henry Lewis Stimson, B.A. 1888," pp. 11-12 (born September 21, 1867, New York City; died October 20, 1950, Huntington, N.Y.; lawyer 1891-1950; U.S. attorney Southern District of New York 1906-9 and special assistant 1909-10; Secretary of War 1911-13 and 1940-45; Secretary of State 1929-33; special Presidential representative in Nicaragua 1927; Governor General of the Philippine Islands 1928-29; London Naval Conference 1930 and Geneva Disarmament Conference 1932; marriage of July 6, 1893; coronary thrombosis; burial). Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives, http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1950-51.pdf.
[^2]: Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), Introduction by Henry L. Stimson, p. xi; "A Note of Explanation and Acknowledgment" by McGeorge Bundy, pp. 673-674; title page (Secretary of War 1940-45, Secretary of State 1929-33).
[^3]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, pp. 3-6, quoting "In the autumn of 1884 I entered the class of '88 at Yale."
[^4]: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1950-1951, entry "Henry Lewis Stimson, B.A. 1888," p. 11 (Berkeley Premium, English composition prize, Townsend Premium, DeForest Prize Medal, "He Boule, Psi Upsilon, Skull and Bones, Chi Delta Theta, Phi Beta Kappa").
[^5]: *The Yale Banner*, vol. 47 (New Haven, 1888), "Commencement" section, Commencement speakers, June 27, 1888 ("'John Hale and the Latitudinarians,' by Henry Lewis Stimson, of New York City"). https://archive.org/details/yalebanner02univgoog.
[^6]: Antony C. Sutton, *America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones* (1983), chart "Hypothesis Number One," with the family entries for Stimson (1635, Watertown, Mass.), Taft (1679, Braintree, Mass.), Bundy (1635, Boston, Mass.) and Harriman (railroads).
[^7]: Ron Rosenbaum, article on Skull and Bones, *Esquire*, September 1977.
[^8]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, pp. 3-6 (admission to the bar in June 1891, clerkship with Root & Clarke, admission to the firm on January 1, 1893, Bronson Winthrop, and the 1897 firm name).
[^9]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, p. 6 (West Hills, Township of Huntington, the central ridge of Long Island, the name "Highhold," and forty-four years).
[^10]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, p. 9 (Hearst's office, seven indictments within five months, fourteen more the following year).
[^11]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, pp. 9-10 (New York Central and the American Sugar Refining Company, three successive jury trials, the company's surrender on the remaining indictments, the counsel's remark, and Root's advice).
[^12]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. I, p. 10 (prosecution of Charles W. Morse for misusing the funds of the Bank of North America).
[^13]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. II, p. 29 (Taft's offer of the Secretary of War post, accepted by Stimson); Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1950-1951, p. 11 ("Secretary of War of the United States 1911-13"); United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Henry Lewis Stimson," Biographies of the Secretaries of State (appointed Secretary of War by Taft in 1911), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/stimson-henry-lewis.
[^14]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. II, "With Roosevelt and Taft," pp. 18-55, and table of contents ("The Split of 1912").
[^15]: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Henry Lewis Stimson," Biographies of the Secretaries of State (Chile-Peru mediation of 1925, Nicaraguan civil war of 1927, appointment as Governor General by Coolidge, Secretary of State from March 1929), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/stimson-henry-lewis.
[^16]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), table of contents and chapter headings: ch. V, "As Private Citizen," section "The Peace of Tipitapa" (pp. 101-116); ch. VI, "Governor General of the Philippines" (p. 117), with sections "The Background," "A Happy Year" and "Later Disappointments and Some Hopes" (pp. 117-154).
[^17]: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Henry Lewis Stimson" (Secretary of State: appointed March 5, 1929; entry on duty March 28, 1929; termination March 4, 1933; succeeded Frank Kellogg; London Naval Conference 1930; Geneva Disarmament Conference 1932), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/stimson-henry-lewis.
[^18]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. VII, p. 188 (the Black Chamber passage and the principle that "the way to make men trustworthy is to trust them").
[^19]: National Security Agency, "The Black Chamber", https://www.nsa.gov/History/Cryptologic-History/Historical-Events/Article-View/Article/2740622/the-black-chamber/ (May 1919 agreement and $100,000 appropriation; Stimson's decision; May 1929 Signal Corps reorganization; severance and "confidential funds"; Yardley's charge and Stimson's autobiography).
[^20]: Herbert O. Yardley, *The American Black Chamber* (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1931), ch. 1, "The State Department Code Room" (the "ceased in 1929" sentence) and Foreword (the "new Secretary of State" sentence).
[^21]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. VII, p. 193 (appointment of Harvey H. Bundy as Assistant Secretary, and of Herbert Feis as Economic Adviser, after the death of an officer named Cotton).
[^22]: United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1932, Volume III, The Far East*, telegram, The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Nanking (Peck), January 7, 1932, document 10, p. 7, with the text of the note (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1932v03/d10).
[^23]: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "The Mukden Incident of 1931 and the Stimson Doctrine," Milestones: 1921-1936, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/mukden-incident.
[^24]: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Henry Lewis Stimson," Biographies of the Secretaries of State ("what later became known as the 'Stimson Doctrine'"), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/stimson-henry-lewis.
[^25]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), ch. IX, "The Far Eastern Crisis," section 1, "From Conciliation to Nonrecognition," beginning p. 220.
[^26]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), p. 317 (Yale Commencement of June 1940, the radio speech of June 18, 1940, and "before he accepted public office").
[^27]: National Archives, Records of the Office of the Secretary of War (Record Group 107), agency history note ("The wartime Secretaries of War were Henry L. Stimson, July 10, 1940-September 21, 1945, and Robert P. Patterson"), https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/rg-107.html; United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Cordell Hull" (appointed March 4, 1933; served until November 20, 1944), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/hull-cordell.
[^28]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), p. 338 (Lovett's arrival in November 1940 as air assistant, Patterson's service "from the beginning to the end," and Harvey H. Bundy's earlier service with Stimson).
[^29]: Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, *Personal Justice Denied* (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1982), pp. 79-80, including nn. 151-152 (Stimson diary, February 10, 1942).
[^30]: *Personal Justice Denied* (1982), p. 83, including nn. 166-167 (Stimson's record of February 17, 1942, and the meeting of February 18, 1942).
[^31]: National Archives, "Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942)," transcript of Executive Order No. 9066, February 19, 1942 (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066).
[^32]: *Personal Justice Denied* (1982), p. 99 (the powers conferred by Executive Order 9066, and Stimson's letter of February 20, 1942 to DeWitt).
[^33]: *Personal Justice Denied* (1982), Summary, p. 15 (May 1944 position; delay until after the November 1944 election; "motivated by political considerations").
[^34]: *Personal Justice Denied* (1982), p. 227 (Cabinet meeting of May 26, 1944, and Biddle's note).
[^35]: *Personal Justice Denied* (1982), p. 47 (McCloy as civilian aide to Stimson responsible for Japanese American questions).
[^36]: United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Volume I, General: The United Nations*, document 6, Memorandum by the Secretary of War (Stimson) to the Secretary of State, January 23, 1945, with editorial note citing Stimson and Bundy, *On Active Service in Peace and War*, pp. 599-605 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945v01/d6).
[^37]: Memorandum discussed with the President, April 25, 1945, Henry Stimson Diary, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library (microfilm at the Library of Congress), in National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 162, "The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II," Document 3b (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/3b.pdf); see also Document 3a, the memorandum of April 23, 1945 prepared by Groves.
[^38]: Stimson Diary, April 25, 1945, in National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 162, Document 3d (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/3d.pdf); Document 3c (War Department record of the arrangements for Groves to accompany Stimson); the collection's index of documents drawn from the Stimson Diary (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/).
[^39]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), "The Atomic Bomb and the Surrender of Japan," p. 616 (the committee set up in April, its chairmanship, and the list of members).
[^40]: "Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting, Thursday, 31 May 1945," signed R. Gordon Arneson, Secretary, Records of the Army Corps of Engineers (RG 77), Manhattan Engineer District, Harrison-Bundy files, folder 100, in National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 162, Document 12 (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/12.pdf), sections on the opening statement, Russia, effect of the bombing on the Japanese, undesirable scientists and next meeting.
[^41]: Memorandum from R. Gordon Arneson to Mr. Harrison, June 6, 1945, RG 77, Harrison-Bundy files, folder 100, in National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 162, Document 14 (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/14.pdf).
[^42]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), p. 617.
[^43]: Memorandum of Conference with the President, June 6, 1945, Stimson Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, in National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 162, Document 15 (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/15.pdf).
[^44]: United States Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, Volume II*, document 1303, Harrison to Stimson, July 16, 1945, with the editorial footnote quoting Stimson's diary of July 16 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1303).
[^45]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 1236, Stimson to the Secretary of State, with memorandum for the President, "The Conduct of the War with Japan," July 16, 1945, and the editorial footnote quoting Stimson's diary of July 17, 23 and 24 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1236).
[^46]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 1241, Stimson to the President, "Proposed Proclamation to Japan," July 20, 1945 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1241).
[^47]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 1305, Groves to Stimson, editorial footnote quoting Stimson's diary of July 21, 1945 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1305).
[^48]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 710a-109, Memorandum by the Secretary of War, "Conference with Generalissimo Stalin, 25 July 1945, 1225 to 1243 at Schloss Cecilienhof" (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d710a-109).
[^49]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 1307, Harrison to Stimson, July 21, 1945, with editorial footnote on the selection of Kyoto as a possible target (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1307).
[^50]: *Foreign Relations: The Conference of Berlin, 1945, Volume II*, document 1310, Stimson to Harrison, July 23, 1945, with editorial footnote quoting Stimson's diary of July 22 and 24, 1945 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1310).
[^51]: Henry L. Stimson, "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb," *Harper's Magazine*, February 1947, as reprinted in *Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists*, vol. 3, no. 2 (February 1947) (https://archive.org/details/sim_bulletin-of-the-atomic-scientists_1947-02_3_2), sections on the memorandum of July 2, "The Use of the Bomb" and "A Personal Summary," and the Bulletin's editorial "The Decision to Use the Bomb."
[^52]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), p. 609 (the fall of 1941, and the Harper's article as "a careful record").
[^53]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), Introduction, p. xi.
[^54]: Stimson, *On Active Service in Peace and War* (1948), "A Note of Explanation and Acknowledgment," pp. 673-674.
[^55]: *Foreign Relations of the United States: Conferences at Quebec, 1944*, document 85, The Secretary of War (Stimson) to the President, September 5, 1944, and footnote quoting Morgenthau's letter to Stimson of September 6, 1944 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1944Quebec/d85).
[^56]: *Foreign Relations of the United States: Conferences at Quebec, 1944*, document 90, Memorandum by the Secretary of War (Stimson), September 9, 1944, enclosure 1 (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1944Quebec/d90).
[^57]: *Foreign Relations of the United States: Conferences at Quebec, 1944*, document 90, editorial footnote on Stimson's diary for September 7, 8 and 9, 1944, citing "Stimson Papers" (https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1944Quebec/d90).
[^58]: Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1950-1951, p. 12 ("Mr. Stimson's papers for the years prior to 1933 were placed on deposit in the University Library in 1949, and became a gift February 11, 1952").
[^59]: Henry Lewis Stimson papers (MS 465), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library (https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0465).


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