United States Coast Guard C-3 Cargo Passenger Vessel African Comet at Ingalls Shipbuilding port. (Ship later renamed the USS Arthur Middleton, AP-55, APA-25). Sailors on deck. Workers working at the vessel. Wooden planks being lifted at the dry dock after launch.
U.S. Coast Guard Cargo Passenger vessel C-3 African Comet leaving port of Ingalls shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Later the African Comet was renamed the USS Arthur Middleton (AP-55, APA-25) and carried a joint crew of U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. Miss Mary Maud Farrell the sponsor, dressed in white. Dignitaries and crowd gather for launch. Sailors on deck. Film camera equipment on deck. Two other boats seen with African Comet.
Opening scene shows cartoon depiction of a samurai and a Meiji-era soldier. A cartoon depicts the Bakufu opening Japan to the Western world. A Japanese communications worker is seen climbing a pole to install communications lines. A steam locomotive moves along railroad tracks being installed in the country. Glimpse of European style Japanese calendar (October 1856) being adopted. A Japanese photographer using flash powder and hooded camera. Men walking on a sidewalk in European style fashions. Cartoon showing Japanese inviting outsiders to help them build up their military power. View of three Japanese officials posing for camera. View of a British sailing vessel displaying the British Red Navy Ensign. Japanese troops on maneuvers with realistic smoke and battlefield conditions, supervised by French military advisors. Reenactment of French fighting Prussians in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. Impressed by the German victory, the Japanese solicited German advisors for their army. View of German troops goosestepping and then of Japanese troops also goosestepping. National Diet building in Chiyoda City (1-7-1 Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0014, Japan). View of Japanese legislators and then of the entire legislature (Diet) in session. Views of Japanese military leaders, including General Hideki Tojo, who also served as Prime Minister of Japan. Views of several such military leaders in uniform, exiting automobiles. Japanese soldiers marching through Torii gates.
Preparations for war in Japan during World War 2 period. Japanese laborers work hard in various factories. War production workers creating war materiel, armament, airplanes, tanks. Men and women at work in war production factories, together with child labor. Japanese troops mobilize and prepare for World War 2. Japanese soldiers on parade and Japanese tanks seen passing in review. Anti-Japanese propaganda. Japanese children being trained and doing various physical exercises. Japanese young boys perform drills and war combat training, calisthenics, and classroom testing. Boys wearing only goggles receive some kind of light therapy or ultraviolet or sunray therapy. Japanese youth and soldiers learning various martial arts (possibly Kendo or Bōjutsu) and hand to hand combat. War in Manchuria. Newspaper headlines show the attack of Japan on Hong Kong and Corregidor. Japanese soldiers seen fighting in wars. Scenes of war devastation and dead civilians in Manchuria and various areas where Japan has attacked. Bodies loaded onto carts and dead Chinese civilians in streets killed by Japanese. Japanese officer leading Japanese solders in a banzai cheer.
View of a church or monastery with onion dome and cross. German ground crewmen fueling Luftwaffe (German Air Force) Ju 87, Stuka Dive Bomber hidden in woods, during World War 2. German enlisted man closing gas cap on wing of Stuka. German troops, stripped to waist, unload a bomb in a box from a truck. They move the bomb on a dolley to load it on a Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. Rear seat observer climbs aboard a Ju 87, and takes camera from ground crewman. Stukas taking off. Stukas in formation. Scenes from air, of Ju-87 aircraft attacking lines of communication on the ground. Explosions as bombs strike.
Japanese propaganda footage showing Japanese forces heading for attack on Pearl Harbor in World War 2. Turrets of a Japanese battle ship being trained starboard. Japanese Navy flag flying. Bow of battleship and Imperial crest seen. Three Japanese crewmen use binoculars. Japanese fleet underway. Admiral Yamamoto on bridge. Scale ruler used on a navigation map. Japanese title slates seen at beginning of clip.