Ten days before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Stimson entered in his diary the following statement:
[Roosevelt] brought up the event that we are likely to be attacked perhaps next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do.
The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.
MR. HARRIMAN: What about war criminals?
GENERAL MacARTHUR: Don't touch the war criminals. It doesn't work. The Nurnberg trials and Tokyo trials were no deterrent.
In my own right I can handle those who have committed atrocities and, if we catch them, I intend to try them immediately by military commission.
