Japanese international activities during 1931-1945. Opening scene shows Japanese troops embarking on ships bound for an invasion of Manchuria, in 1931. Officers walking on the dock, amongst the departing troops. Scenes of explosions and destruction. Views of Shanghai during Japanese attacks in 1937. Destroyed buildings. Civilian dead lying in the streets. Japanese soldiers racing along a street in a three wheeled motorcycle vehicle. Change of scene shows Japanese diplomat Yosuke Matsuoka addressing a League of Nations meeting in 1933, after that body adopted a report blaming Japan for events in Manchuria. He objects to that action and then leads his delegation in walking out of the meeting. View of Japanese delegates in top hats and bowler hats exiting the building. Scene shifts to Japanese forces firing artillery and machine guns in Manchuria.They wave large Japanese flag victoriously after a battle. The next scene shows Italian forces occupying Ethiopia and raising the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, as Italian troops salute, presenting arms of rifles with fixed bayonets. Axis leaders celebrate the 1940 Tripartite Pact between German, Italy and Japan. The festivities take place in a hall displaying the three nation's flags on the walls. A large number of persons attend including Japan's Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo, seen with two celebrants. Scene reverts to China with Chinese civilian people trying to escape from invading Japanese forces. The refugees carry their belongings as they flee. Occasional shell burst is seen among advancing Japanese troops as Chinese soldiers put up resistance. Chinese soldiers firing artillery. In the U.S., Japanese envoys KichisaburÅ Nomura and SaburÅ Kurusu are seen walking together into a building and entering a room inside. Next, are views of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with huge plumes of smoke obscuring the bombed U.S. battleships in the harbor. U.S. battleships in line formation in the Pacific during World War 2. Aerial view of U.S. warships moving in parallel. British ships augmenting the U.S. warships. Naval guns firing. U.S. amphibious assaults on Japanese held islands in the Pacific. Prisoners of the Japanese who suffered in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur mingling with former prisoners and internees upon his return to Manila in 1944. Aerial views of Iwo Jima. Naval bombardment and amphibious assault of Iwo Jima. Numerous fallen Japanese soldiers. The iconic American flag raising by U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima. View of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. during the campaign on Okinawa, where he was killed in action. A Soldier being carried on a stretcher. Another throwing a hand grenade. U.S. soldier firing at a Japanese defender who falls out of his bunker. Large numbers of Japanese prisoners of war assembled in a field. Japanese Kamikaze attacking U.S. warships off Okinawa. The sky filled with antiaircraft flak clouds. View of 40mm Bofors antiaircraft cannon firing and a Japanese plane falling and exploding on impact in the ocean.
View from ship flying U.S. Navy church pennant above the American flag, during amphibious assault training in the Pacific, during World War 2. Several Marines injured during the exercises are given first aid and transported by Coast Guard crew of landing craft. A Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) pulls alongside ramp of a Landing Ship Tank (LST). Navy personnel standing on ramp. A litter patient smoking a cigarette, brought aboard a LCVP. Litter patients on the well deck of a LCVP. Marine with face injury receives treatment.
Amphibious training in Pacific during Second World War. Landing Vehicles Tracked (LVT) in the water. Ships at anchor. LVTs underway towards the beach. A Landing Ship Tank (LST) convoy anchored off shore. A view of the beach area. Explosions on the beach. Amphibious vehicles with United States Marines approach the beach. A United States Navy Fletcher Class destroyer and a Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) off shore. LVTs, in column, heading for the beach. Hills in the background.
A U.S. Marine and Chaplain stand on the loading ramp of a Landing Ship Tank (LST). Surf breaking over the ramp as the Marine is baptized by the chaplain. Destroyer Escort Silhouetted on the horizon. Variety of Navy vessels comprising an amphibious task force, anchored offshore.
U.S. amphibious assault on Pacific island in World War 2. Transport ships offshore. A U.S. Fletcher Class destroyer, close to shore, bombarding the shore. White smoke rising from shell burst. Landing craft heading toward shore. Black smoke rising on shoreline, from naval shelling. More black smoke and fires at another shore location. Plume of water from Japanese shell striking near assault boats. The destroyer close to the shore as smoke drifts above mountain in background. Flames at shore. Landing craft tracked (LCT) approaching shore and avoiding area of fire and smoke. American SC-497 Class Submarine Chaser, PC-1278, close to shore. She displays a red flag with white stripe, as secondary control ship for Red Beach. Several LVTs led by one displaying Wave Commander blue and orange flag. Several plumes of water thrown into the air from Japanese shells or bombs. Assault boats reaching narrow beach, where a fire is burning. Other boats and LVTs avoiding the area of smoke and fire. Landing craft clustered at shore and one flying red and white flag, away from the shore. Several structures on the shore. More black smoke rising from shore. Camera pans around showing steep vegetation-covered hills characteristic of the island.
Japanese group leader makes speech to pilots on an airfield. Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bombers parked in the background. Airmen gather in the field. Bombers and hangars in the background. Religious flag flies on the field. Planes take off from airstrip. Ground crew waves towards the planes. Formation of 27 bombers in flights of 3 each. Pilot, copilot and third crew member in cockpit of a bomber. Radio operator comes forward, salutes the pilot, and gives him written orders which the pilot reads. He then folds his arms and expresses a look of resignation.