Japanese propaganda film "War Record of Nippon Parachute Troops", in English, made during World War 2. Japanese Para Troops check their parachutes and board transport air crafts. Planes take off from Malay air base in Malaysia to capture Allied air base in Palembang, Indonesia. Naval ship in waters of 'Straits of Malacca'. Japanese parachute troops jump off the airplanes over Palembang air base near River Musi as Allied forces fire anti aircraft guns. Japanese exchange gunfire with Dutch Allied troops. Japanese paratrooperss capture Palembang airbase. Wreck of Allied fighter aircraft and abandoned anti aircraft guns.
Battle of Palembang, Indonesia, in World War 2. Japanese Kawasaki Ki-56 transport aircraft flying overhead in formation, begin dropping paratroopers. The sky is filled with their chutes. Next scene shows many struggling to make their way through knee-deep swampy jungles, where they landed. Most of their arms and ammunition were lost in the swamps. They finally emerge to attack lightly defended facilities of the Dutch Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) and Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij (NKPM),a refinery for the American Standard Oil Company. Japanese soldiers are seen after a day's battle with the defending contingent of Royal Netherlands East Indies Army home guard. A rear guard group of them and Dutch technicians, are made prisoners. Shell fired by departing Dutch forces strike oil storage tanks. Smoke rises in several places and one very heavy black smoke plume rises near the camera. Soon the area is a blazing inferno. The Japanese troops succeed in confining fires to the oil tanks, extinguish them, and save the cracking towers and other essential oil refinery structures. The Japanese flag is seen atop one. (Note: Two technicians seen in white, at TC: 02:05, are BPM workers. The one on the left is Christiaan Stapels. He died at a Japanese prisoner of war camp in June 1945.)
Illustrated discussion of Japan's limitations in natural resources prior to World War II. Workers shown in textile mills which employed more than half of Japan's factory workers prior to the war, satisfying domestic and export needs. Analysis of the natural resources. Cotton thread is rolled on the spindles in the Textile mills in Japan. Textile mills produce fabric in Japan. Japanese women work in the textile mills. Bales of raw cotton imported from Japanese possessions in Korea and Formosa, and from the United States,India, Brazil and China. They are transported via horse carts and manually pushed on small rail carts to storage buildings for stockpiling. People cultivating some of the small amount of cotton grown in Japan. Horses and cattle used to pull plows in rice paddies. Pigs used as scavengers. Woolen fabric is produced from wool. Some of Japan's very few sheep being sheared for wool. Women working in fields of mulberry trees where silk worms flourish on their leaves. Views of the silk being spun onto spindles in a factory. Silk fabrics being stacked. Illustrated summary highlights Japanese domestic shortages of cotton, wool, and leather needed for clothing.
Scenes of Second Sino-Japanese War, circa 1938. Japanese soldiers observing battlefield from a ridge. Japanese artillerymen firing field pieces. Flight of two Mitsubishi Ki-15-1 light bombers in formation, later called "Babs" by the Allies and known as a C5M in Japanese Navy usage. Aerial view of Japanese bombs falling on Chinese cities. Chinese citizens, including an injured woman, seeking shelter from bombing. Aerial view of Chinese ship being strafed by Japanese aircraft. The ship explodes. Downed Japanese warplanes burning. Scenes of destruction from bombing of oil facilities. Iron ore being moved in Japanese rail cars. Steel plants around Yawata, Japan. Numerous containers of molten steel inside a steel plant. Hot Steel ingots being moved. Animated map shows locations of iron ore deposits in Japan. Scrap steel being imported that, narrator states, helped boost Japanese wartime production to 12 million ingot tons in the Sino-Japanese war. More views of open rail cars moving alloying elements to a steel mill. Open mining using explosives. Mining operations for copper and bauxite (aluminum ore). Japanese miners shoveling ore by hand into open rail cars. Open rail cars moving in both directions on parallel tracks. (Note: Although some narration refers to 1941 Japanese production, the images are from earlier period.)
Skeleton of a large building. Scenes of destruction in Japan soon after end of World War 2 fighting. Japanese buildings and small shacks. Japanese civilians tear down air raid shelters in Shiba district of Tokyo city. Scenes of rubble and damage from war bombing. Damaged Buddhist club building.
Bombing damage in Tokyo soon after the end of World War 2. Samurai district showing remains of small shops and Geisha houses. Square block destroyed. Gutted war department building and retaining prison. Damage to navy building. Entrance to imperial palace and surrounding area. U.S. sailors stand at entrance to imperial palace.
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