Top High School students from all over Japan are gathered for special honors. Koinobori carp kites flying. A Japanese official speaks over a microphone and reads from a paper. The students stand in formation and listen to him. Another Japanese official stands at a platform and speaks. The officials review the students and are escorted by soldiers. (World War II period).
Volcanic eruption and creation of island of Japan. Glimpse of map of Japan. Gardens and rivers. Two men demonstrate samurai sword techniques. Japanese soldiers advance through smoke carrying rising sun flag. Chinese suffering under Japanese military occupation. Two executed with rifles. Japanese soldiers waving weapons and red ball flags. A DC-3 aircraft flying over a Japanese Pagoda. Vies of Old Japan. Farmers at work. One manually turning a water pump with his feet. A man using a pole to propel a boat. Modern methods adopted in Japan for terraced farming. Japanese building railroads. Japanese modern locomotive on South Manchurian Railway. in 1934. A Japanese twin engine bomber taking off. The Japanese ocean liner, Asama Maru, in the 1930s. Glimpse of numerous ships in Tokyo harbor. Western style architecture in modern Tokyo buildings. Neon lights on the Grand Palace Hotel and other establishments in Tokyo. Industrial smoke stacks. Women at work in a silk factory. Finished product stamped "Made in Japan."Steel ingots being made in a Japanese steel mill using scrap iron imported from the U.S.A. Chinese victims of 2nd Sino-Japanese War. Japanese troops on parade. Dead American Marines on shore of Tarawa Atoll in the Pacific in World War 2, killed in battle. Japanese high ranking officers reviewing troops on parade. Japanese warships underway. Troops parading beneath the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. American B-25 bombers on flight deck of the USS Hornet, headed to bomb Tokyo.A crew of Doolittle's Raiders standing by their plane. B-25 taking off from the Hornet. Formation of B-25s in flight. View from bomber of smoke rising from bombing of Tokyo below. Brigadier General Jimmie Doolittle pledging to repeat bombing of Tokyo. Supply train entering a Boeing Company defense plant. United States war production workers being scrutinized as they enter the facility and punching in at a time clock. Poster in the plant picturing a B-29 bomber aircraft on a message in German describing it as an instrument for a "Destruction Battle against the Luftwaffe." Bold letters, above, in English read: "They're Promised-Let's Deliver 'em!" And, below, the words: "B-29, Super Bombers." Slabs of aluminum sheets fill a factory room. Overhead traveling cranes move them. Workers in airplane manufacturing and assembly plant use heat and brakes to shape the aluminum sheets. Multiple views of the aluminum being machined and stamped to specifications. Wings being fabricated. Relatively unskilled labor using jigs to perform the work. Woman war worker operating an overhead crane moving a wing in the plant. Views of plane parts moving across the ceiling via cranes. Women workers driving rivets into wings. Men and women employees working inside fuel fuel compartments of wings. A floor full of engine nacelles. A floor full of 2200 HP radial engines. A skeleton nose section being fabricated. Midsections and bomb bays being assembled. Workers crawling through the airframe during aircraft assembly. A woman working on a connecting tunnel. Sub-assemblies made by contractors arriving at the plant. More views of Boeing employees including young, old, men, and women, at work in the plant.
Scene opens with a map illustrating one possible Allied path for invasion of Japan. It proceeds from India and Burma to China and thence to Japan. A U.S. B-24 bomber is seen landing at a Far East Air field. Next, the Supreme Allied Commander of South-East Command (SEAC) Admiral Lord Mountbatten, is seen posing with Chinese General Li Zongren (AKA Li Tsung-jen) and other high ranking Chinese officers, and then walking with them. Next are views of U.S. General Joseph Stillwell working with staff as they consult maps. Then, Chinese laborers are seen engaged in construction of a bridge over a riverbed, that is to be part of the "Ledo Road,"traversing Burma and providing a highway from India to Chunking, China. Trucks moving over the already completed segments of the road, carry men and war materiel. One truck passes a local native drawing water from a well using a long counterbalanced pole. At the frontier of the roadbuilding, Chinese soldiers chop their way through dense jungles and battle Japanese forces firing at them. A fallen soldier. Allied soldiers shouting as run into a village engaging Japanese forces. Structures in the village burning and spreading in the area. Scene shifts abruptly to an animated map illustrating what are believed to be the Japanese plan for its last desparate defense. It shows them falling back to highly defensible boundaries encompassing sources of supplies needed to sustain their defense. Aerial views of Manchurian landscape. Japanese officials are seen at their administrative offices in Manchuria. Large numbers of Manchurian workers are seen headed to work near a factory. Others are engaged in open pit mining, where explosives are used to expose and ready ores for extraction. Views inside a Manchurian steel plant supporting the Japanese war effort. Japanese military forces are shown moving by horseback in the area, ostensibly to push further into China and add more protection against potential Allied offensives. Likewise, Japanese warships are shown at sea maneuvering to defensive locations. This is all summed up in a map showing the expected disposition and status of military defensives for Japan's final defense (Fortress Japan). Street traffic on a city street in Japan. A large group of Japanese women in traditional dress, carry banners and quietly bow. View of the Japanese Diet Building (Parliament) and political and Military leaders inside, including Prime Minister Tojo, Hideki.
Ships damaged as a result of typhoons in Buckner bay at Yonabaru, Okinawa. Damaged stern of a wrecked vessel in Ryukyu island, Japan. Debris lies in bay.
Activities of women in Nagano, Japan during World War II. A view of Japanese houses. Chimneys on top of a Japanese house. Kanji Chinese characters written on a blackboard. Women prepare and cook food in a kitchen. Women knit clothes. A woman brings a bucket outside. A group of women wash utensils. The women carrying shovels and other farming equipment enter a field. They carry hay. Mountains in the background. The women cultivate crops. They plow the field using shovels. Japanese women farming.
Tokyo bombings during World War II. A map shows a flight path from Saipan island, Mariana Islands to Tokyo, Japan. Several United States Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers in flight on their way to Tokyo. Aerial view of buildings in Tokyo. A B-29 drops bombs over target areas in the city. Aerial view of the city shows explosions occurring and smoke rising. The B-29s in flight. View of the sun on the horizon.