The background of World War II. German Hitler Youth children march with rifles, flags and a band beneath a camp entrance named Nordmark Lager 1935. Flag with Nazi symbol. Japanese flag and Japanese youth march in military exercises, followed by teenage Japanese forces. Italian fascist troops in uniform march in Torino Italy led by a band. Views of various German and Nazi forces parade and goose step in various cities. Units include brownshirts, goosestepping Storm Troopers, Wehrmacht. Civilians give a salute. Mostly sad looking men women and children watch the parades. The world globe. U.S. Capitol Building in Washington DC. French, Japanese and United States dignitaries attend the Washington Disarmament Conference or Washington Naval Conference at Memorial Continental Hall in Washington DC in 1921. View of the Washington Naval Treaty naval fleet reduction treaty book with signatures on it. Officials sign the Nine-Power Treaty that guarantees the integrity of China (per the John Hay "Open Door Policy"). Japanese delegation is shown at signing ceremony for the Nine-Power Treaty. Next scene shows 1928 signing ceremony in Paris of the Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as a means of settling international disputes. French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand is seen speaking, and American Secretary of State Frank Kellogg is also seen at the treaty signing which was signed by 47 nations including Germany and Japan. In a 1930 scene, U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Stimson hands the London Naval Treaty to President Herbert Hoover. Scene of a U.S. Navy ship being blown up and scrapped in accordance with the treaty terms. View of American citizens in small town parades with floats marching as anti-war and isolationist groups.
Italy commemorates its participation in World War I at a Fascist ceremony in Rome, Italy. Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III arrive at the Victor Emmanuel II Memorial or Altar of the Fatherland (Altare della Patria, Piazza Venezia, 00186 Roma RM, Italy) in Rome, Italy. They get off a carriage. Soldiers of sixteen regiments lined up at the memorial to commemorate the Italian participation in World War I. The soldiers march past the memorial. Bruno, the son of Benito Mussolini, dons a flight gear and gets into the cockpit of an aircraft. The aircraft taxis and takes off. Mussolini looks on. He decorates his son and hands him a license as an aviator. Benito Mussolini hugs his son.
Prime Minister and Fascist leader Benito Mussolini addresses the Italian people before the invasion of Ethiopia in Rome, Italy. Benito Mussolini looks down from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia (Piazza di S. Marco, 49, 00186 Roma RM, Italy). He speaks to a huge crowd gathered in Piazza San Marco in downtown Rome.
'Italy's sleeping giant wakes up after 7 years'. Two men climb up the Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. Volcanic eruption takes place as white smoke emerges from the mountain.
King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III reviews a parade. King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III inspects marching columns of the crack Tiger Division. Troops at a parade before leaving for service in the East African campaign.
Opening scene shows six women standing atop sheaves of wheat piled high on a threshing machine in the Pontine marshes of Italy. The Italian flag is displayed above the pile. A man sits on the pile with a camera, taking photographs as Benito Mussolini climbs a ladder to the threshing floor platform, where several men and women await him. Mussolini is dressed in military jack boots and breeches and white cap. But he has removed his jacket and is in a shirt sleeved shirt and neckerchief, ready to work. As he reaches the platform, everyone, including a large group assembled around the threshing rig, raise their right arms in salute. Mussolini momentarily removes his hat to don goggles,and then replaces it backwards with the bill to the rear. He gets right down on the threshing floor to start work. Camera zooms in on him kneeling on the floor stuffing sheaves of wheat into the thresher, as women nearby untie the sheaves and hand them to him. Later, Mussolini is seen descending the ladder to join officials and farmers standing on the ground. He then walks slowly away, followed by the entourage. Next, the camera zooms in on a woman's hand, displaying the newly threshed grain in one of many bags. She raises up handfuls of it and lets it fall through her fingers. Mussolini posing with a group of women and men, smilingly asks an approaching man to step back to allow the pictures to be taken.