Animated map of Philippines and Guam. Pre-war scenes of buildings in Philippines before Japanese attack. Flag waving from a building in Manila, Philippines. Filipino civilians running on streets and Japanese planes bombing in Manila during World War II. Fire on a house due to bombing. Scenes of devastated houses. Christ's statue dropped on ground in a church. A bell on the church. An animated map of Pacific region and focuses on Australia. Scene of General Douglas MacArthur. American troops gathered in an Australian port. Japanese attack by air at Port Moresby. U.S. troops debarking. Anti-aircraft guns firing in Midway Island. Admiral Chester W Nimitz decorates heroes of the battle of Midway. Scenes of ships in sea. A plane and some U.S. troops on boats. Scene of U.S. troops in jungle. Animated map of Solomon Islands. U.S. flag on a ship. Fighters and land-based Army bombers fly in air. Soldiers save themselves from firing by plane. Scenes of U.S. soldiers on island. Japanese signboard on a tree.
Film opens with views of goosestepping German, Italian, and Japanese soldiers during parade reviews in their respective countries. Emperor Hirohito, on a white horse. American battleships burning in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur decorating a soldier in Manila, Philippines. Air raid sirens sounding in Manila and residents hurrying to take cover. Heavy black smoke rising from a bombed site and emergency vehicles responding and rushing to several bombed and burning locations. A burning rickshaw amidst other bombing rubble and bodies of victims. U.S. Army General MacArthur greeted by Australian officials at his headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. Sign reads: Headquarters UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES in Australia. American flag flying on tall flagpole. View from ship underway in supply convoy. A battleship seen on horizon and a destroyer passing the camera ship. U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the "Lend Lease Act" of 1941. A U.S. industrial plant with four tall stacks emitting smoke. A steam locomotive belching steam. A locomotive pulling an open car and some tank cars. New 1941 Plymouth automobiles coming off a production line. A new M3 Medium Tank in a U.S. factory. View of Liberty Ships, including the "Zebulon Pike" and the "Henry Knox" under construction at the California Shipbuilding Corporation yard, Terminal Island, California. U.S. Navy Destroyers constructed at Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey. One is being launched, next to DD-446 (the USS Radford). A formation of U.S. Navy aircraft including Curtiss SBC Helldiver scout bombers and Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers. A tight formation of U.S. Army Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers in flight. A formation of U.S. Army Curtiss P-36 Hawk aircraft in flight. Closeup of a U.S. Army Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft in flight. Several huge gun barrels for guns under construction at a U.S. war plant. Large artillery shells lined up in a manufacturing plant. U.S. Army M3 Medium tanks under construction at a factory. Steam and smoke rising from a U.S. industrial plant. Aerial view of open pit iron mine. Sparks shooting up inside a steel plant. A virtual "forest" of oil derricks in the Western U.S. Coal being transported by railway. View from stern of a warship in a convoy. An Atlanta-class light cruiser leading three destroyers at sea. Transport ships in convoys to places like Australia, Britain, and the Middle East. Troops on a pier near a large transport ship. A stack of wartime supplies on a pier next to a ship destined for Russia. Glimpse of wake from a U.S. warship having triple guns astern. Silhouette of a U.S. Navy Enterprise-class Aircraft carrier, with an aircraft taking off from her deck. The aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga. U.S. Army soldiers marching on parade, followed by numerous jeeps with machine guns mounted in their rears. Young men being drafted into the U.S. military. A draft lottery being conducted. New recruits doing calisthenics. Trucks pulling artillery pieces. B-18 Bolo bombers flying over U.S. tanks. Closeup of M3 tank. Cavalry fording a stream. Soldiers on motorcycles. Troops crossing a pontoon bridge. A loaded troop ship. A troop transport at Newfoundland. Sentry in Trinidad. Troops encamped in Bermuda.Troopship docked in Greenland. Troops disembarking in Iceland. Formations of Curtis P-36 Hawk aircraft. Douglas DC-2 aircraft factory. P-36s with engines running. M3 tank suspended on factory crane. Officials of Pan American nations siding with Allies. Allied troops including Dutch, Belgian, Yugoslav, Greek, Czech, Filipino, Polish, Norwegian, Free French, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Canadian. British warships. British Hawker Tempest aircraft. British commandos. Russian troops on parade. Chinese troops on the Great Wall of China.
U.S. Army Major Achille C. Tisdell testifies before a military tribunal in Manila, Phillipines during the trial of Japanese Army General Masaharu Homma for World War II crimes. Major Tisdell, aide-de-camp to Commanding General of the American forces in Luzon Major General Edward King is asked about how long he was at Camp O'Donnell. He says that he was there from April 13, 1942 to June 1, 1942. He recalls that at the camp the commanding officer of the prison camp addressed them. Major Tisdell being questioned about the Red Cross supplies. He says that once Red Cross food and medical supplies arrived at the camp gates but were not permitted to enter. He also speaks about the number of times he was questioned at the camp and that he was offered an opportunity to move to Manila and work for the Japanese. He says that a number of times the prisoners were beaten for no reason by the Japanese guards.
U.S. Army Major Achille C. Tisdell testifies before a military tribunal in Manila, Phillipines during the trial of Japanese Army General Masaharu Homma for World War II crimes. Major Tisdell, aide-de-camp to Commanding General of the American forces in Luzon Major General Edward King reads out an advisory note of the Chief of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy sent to the Americans on March 22, 1942. A member of the tribunal asks him whether there was any doubt that the Japanese had accepted the American surrender. Major Tisdell also testifies about the location of American headquarters and the surrender by the Americans.
The Philippines under Japanese occupation, liberation, and subsequent granting of independence by the United States in World War 2. Bodies of Filipino and United States soldiers killed during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Captured American, Filipino, and Australian soldiers raise their hands after the Fall of Corregidor. United States General Jonathan M. Wainwright negotiating the surrender of The Phillipines with Japanese General Masaharu Homma in 1942. Brigadier General Lewis C. Beebe and Major Thomas Dooley are seen to Wainwright's left. An American warship firing during the United States Pacific campaign to defeat Japanese occupying forces in the Pacific. United States soldiers get off an amphibious landing craft during the U.S. retaking of the Philippines. United States General Douglas MacArthur arrival in Leyte Gulf with a retinue consisting of Philippine President-in-exile Sergio Osmeña, Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland, Philippine Brigadier General Carlos P. Romulo, Major General Courtney Whitney, Philippine Sergeant Francisco Salveron and CBS Radio correspondent William J. Dunn in Palo, Leyte, the Philippines- a fulfillment of his promise to return to the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur speaking at the Independence Day ceremony in Manila on July 4, 1946. “America never wavered in that purpose. America today redeems that pledge.” Says General MacArthur. United States Senator Millard Tydings, the co-sponsor of the Tydings–McDuffie Act (a law that provides independence to the Philippines after a 10-year transition as a Commonwealth) attends the ceremony. Paul V. McNutt, the United States High Commissioner of the Philippine Commonwealth (later the first United States Ambassador to the Philippines), reads the United States President Harry Truman's official proclamation of Philippine Independence. Filipino elites and United States dignitaries watch the ceremony in the Independence Grandstand (a temporary structure built in front of the Rizal Monument). Manuel Roxas being sworn in as the first President of the Philippines after gaining independence from the United States. The Philippine national anthem, Lupang Hinirang, plays in the background. High Commissioner McNutt lowers the United States flag from the flagpole as President Manuel Roxas raises the flag of the new Republic of the Philippines. A celebratory parade following the Independence ceremony takes place, which includes floats from various provinces in the country. A float with signs reading: "Let's Produce and Rebuild,". "Mountain Province" float with women wearing formal Filipino Baro’t Saya gowns. "The City of Manila" float with soldiers. "The University of the Philippines" (UP) float featuring two women dressed as allegorical figures and sign saying, “The University of the Philippines At the Service of the State”. "The Division of City Schools" float features two Filipinos in traditional attire in front of a Statue of Liberty model. A float, likely belonging to the National Library of the Philippines, with children and a huge book model. The Chamber of Commerce Philippines float contains a machine gear model and small models of an aircraft and a ship. American soldiers marching, carrying the United States flag. A military marching band play. Filipino soldiers marching with the Philippine flag. Military aircraft in flight above the Independence Grandstand in Manila.
Japanese Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma being greeted in Manila during World War 2. People lining the sidewalks, wave Japanese flags. General Homma drives past in an automobile. He salutes as he walks through outer gates of the U.S. Embassy and further to the main building which has become his residence, as Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Imperial Military in the Philippines. The Japanese flag now flies from the flagpole in front of the building.