Film reviews China's four thousand years of history. Scenes showing mountains, woods, and a farmer plowing with oxen in rural China. A mass of Chinese people tightly packed together as they walk along a narrow alleyway in a town. Fleeting glimpses of two Chinese soldiers; a child; a woman; a woman and child; and numerous other Chinese people in a montage splayed across a background of moving crowds. An open book of Chinese characters. Mariners compass superimposed on an moving image of an ocean liner. Views of several large-scale astrolabes and world globes. A Chinese worker placing porcelainware in an oven for glazing. A man spooning gunpowder into a dish, followed by glimpse of a Chinese firework igniting. Chinese paper Dragon and street celebrations. A book entitled: "Analects of Confucius," in which, on page 105, is found the admonition: "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." Ancient statues of two men and of two riderless horses behind them. Tall Chinese pagodas. Chinese artillery field pieces firing. Chinese troops advancing in several situations during conflict with Japan. Map of China and illustration of Japanese samurai warrior emblazoned across it. A book entitled: "The Tanaka Memorial, (Japan's Dream of World Empire)." A still photograph of Japanese Foreign Minister Baron Tanaka Giichi in military uniform, with other Japanese officers. Excerpts shown, ostensibly from this book. Emperor Hirohito is seen with Baron Tanaka, and other officers, all in military uniforms, in front of a tent, circa 1928. Automated map ostensibly illustrates the elements of a Japanese plan of conquest, starting with Manchuria for raw materials; the absorption of China for manpower; followed by a sweep South for riches of the Indies and Australia; and lastly a sweep eastward to crush the United States. More views of crowds of Chinese people are followed by an. animated map illustrating early World War II events, including Nazi Operation Barbarossa against Russia, approved by German leader Adolf Hitler in 1940, and the Nazi German occupation of Denmark, Norway, and other European countries. (Note: Actual existence of the so-called "Tanaka Memorial Imperialist Conquest Plan" is a subject of debate among historians.)
Sign over American Embassy in China. Colonel William Mayer, former military attache in that embassy relates events precipitating Second Sino-Japanese war. Scenes of the Marco Polo bridge near Peking, on night of July 7, 1937, as Japanese artillery bombards the area. Animated map shows movement of Japanese forces out of Manchuria to occupy Peiping and Tientsin. Victorious Japanese troops stand atop a building, raising their flags and shouting cries of victory. Japanese army officers sit around a table smiling and contended and others walk in a group. Chinese artillery crews are seen retaliating as they fire field pieces at Japanese positions in Shanghai. Shells explode in background, and Chinese infantry advance through damaged buildings and rubble. Animated map shows Shanghai and other cities, and film transitions to view of the bustling city of Shanghai on the Yangtze River. In the seaport, large ocean liners and freighters, as well as tug boats and Junks, are seen. What looks like a Japanese Tachikawa Ki.54 Type 1 transport plane takes off over a Chinese pagoda. Double-decker buses travel through the streets. Rickshaws are also seen. Map outlines the foreign residential areas of the French Concession and the International Settlement. American, British and Japanese flags are shown in the International Settlement. Detachments of troops from Japan, Britain, France, and United States Marines are seen. A U.S. Marine is posted as a sentry at the Shanghai Power Company. Coolies carry heavy bucket on a long pole. British, French and Japanese troops also performed sentry duties. Japanese troops and armored cars are seen. A scuffle breaks out in August, 1937, and Japanese soldiers start moving in trucks, take up firing positions, and begin firing guns from their armored cars. Map shows Chinese counterattack pushing the Japanese contingent toward the Khangpoo River. Next it shows Japanese warships and reinforcements in the Yangtze River and their advance toward Woosung and Shanghai. Views of Japanese warships bombarding the shore and large explosions from their striking shells. Beachhead is shown South of Shanghai, where two divisions of Japanese infantry are seen arriving in landing craft. They advance across the fields toward Shanghai. Map shows Chinese withdrawals to West and South, toward Nanking and Hangchow. Chinese medics along with infantry march in retreat. Japanese pilots are seen being briefed. Next, Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are seen in flight, and bombardiers and other crew in them. Bombs falling on the city. Civilians running for cover as bombs explode. Aichi D3A1 aircraft dropping bombs. The Shanghai waterfront being bombed and civilians running.
Japanese air attack against city of Shanghai, at start of 2nd Sino-Japanese war. Formation of Japanese 93-Shiki Soukei bombers in flight (Mitsubishi Type 93 Twin engine Light Bombers). Bombs falling from aircraft with city seen below. Bomb striking ground with large explosion. Civilians running for cover. Buildings on fire. Bombs striking ships in the Shanghai port. Buildings aflame. Japanese Aichi D3A1 aircraft diving. (anachronistic insert) Panic in the streets as people use any means of escape, carrying belongings in wagons and rushing into the International Settlement, by hundreds, or thousands, moving past British and French soldiers. French soldiers pass an infant to safety, across a barbed wire barrier. Shanghai International Settlement gates are closed as thousands remain outside, pressed against the barriers. Views of Chinese people crammed into the streets. Then they stampede into the center of the city, where some are trapped under falling buildings. More scenes of bomb explosions and burning buildings. A formation of Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers in flight overhead. More bombs exploding in the city. Fires burning and heavy smoke rising over the city. Dead and injured Chinese civilians. Firefighters spraying water on burning building. People trying to aid one another amongst dead and dying everywhere. Wounded being carried on stretchers and dead being piled into an open truck. Animated map showing Japanese occupying the entire peninsula east of Shanghai and then executing a coordinated drive through Soochow (Suzhou) and Kahsingfu, toward Nanking (Nanjing).
Japanese forces attack city of Nanking in 2nd Sino-Japanese war. Animated map shows Japanese forces moving from Shanghai towards Nanking. Arrow points to the American gunboat, USS Panay, in the Yangtze River. View of the USS Panay in the river, with large American flag displayed on its covering. A Japanese Navy Nakajima E8N reconnaissance plane in flight overhead. Explosions on shore of river as viewed from the USS Panay. Sailors firing anti-aircraft gun from the Panay. Wounded and dead U.S. sailors being evacuated from the gunboat as it sinks from bombing. The evacuation launch pulling away from the Panay. View of the Panay sinking by the stern in the Yangtze. Scene shifts to Chinese troops entrenched in defenses of Nanking. Chinese troops running to defensive positions from their fort. View from above of Japanese artillery crews firing field pieces. View from Japanese lines of shells striking Chinese fortifications on hill in distance. Closeups of Chinese infantry defending from wooded area in hills. Closeup of Japanese soldiers firing 75mm field artillery pieces and infantry advancing as their bugler sounds charge on his horn. View from fortress wall as Chinese army defenders stand ready to meet the charge. Japanese gunners firing 75mm field gun (Model 94). Japanese infantry breaching Chinese defenses and using scaling ladders to climb them. Japanese infantry charging toward the camera. They break open an entrance gate to the Chinese fortress and charge inside. Carrying Rising Sun flag, the Japanese infantry begin attacks within the Nanking city proper. some huddle behind a 75mm gun firing down a street. City buildings falling to shellfire. Infantry running through the city. Dense smoke rising from shelling. Japanese infantry running down an alley, with Pagoda in background. Field piece firing point blank at a building. Fires burning. Japanese troops celebrating victory as the city falls to them.
Massacres in Nanking during second Sino-Japanese war. Japanese army troops and Type 89 I-Go tanks enter city gates to occupy Nanking, China. they break into a building and take away a Chinese man on a rope tether. Chinese inhabitants confined by the city walls are unable to escape brutal treatment by Japanese soldiers who are seen dragging men, women and children to be shot. Many are herded into a pit where Japanese soldiers standing above, execute them with rifle fire, as others fill the pit with earth, burying any survivors alive. Two Chinese kneeling with arms tied behind them are summarily executed by soldiers with rifles. A Japanese officer follows with a pistol to assure their death. Bodies of dead Chinese civilians litter an alleyway. Many scenes of Chinese killed by Japanese. (Narrator states that Japanese troops murdered 40 thousand men, women and children.) Japanese Field Marshal Count Terauchi Hisaichi is seen stepping from a transport airplane, followed by Field Marshal Shunroku Hata. Count Terauchi looks pleased as he is greeted and exchanges salutes with other officers. Next, the scene reverts, again to the horrors of Chinese peoples' suffering in Nanking, at the hands of the Japanese soldiers. Views of injured and wounded Chinese civilians, at a hospital, in pictures taken by an American Missionary, and smuggled out of china. A woman holding her injured husband as he lies against a cushion in a street. A small child stands near them. Scene shifts to a smiling Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, greeting local commanders, while photographers record the event in background. Views revert to the destruction and human tragedy in Nanking. A picture of Chinese leader, Sun Yat Sen. Chiang Kai-Shek speaking at a podium, and other Chinese political leaders speaking to gathered people, throughout unoccupied China, encouraging them to unite and resist Japanese aggression. Chinese people parading with banners to encourage resistance. Chinese soldiers and political leaders collaborating to raise armies. Chiang Kai-Shek ascending to Political leadership, exhorting Chinese to unite and fight the Japanese. Numerous scenes of rallies calling for unity and resistance. Chinese military officers standing as Chiang Kai-Shek enters a planning session. He sits and then they do. Behind him on the wall is a map of China. Closeup of Chiang as he outlines a strategy to slowly yield territory to Japanese invaders, to buy time for developing and arming Chinese forces. One of his staff goes to a wall map and gestures as he speaks. Next, Chinese soldiers are seen setting dynamite charges and blowing up lines of communication (roads). Chinese people pour petrol on grain fields and set them ablaze. Factory buildings being blown up and similar destruction as China pursues a "scorched earth" policy to hinder the Japanese invaders. Millions of Chinese people on the move to Western parts of China. (Narrator calls this the greatest human migration ever recorded.)
Millions of Chinese people migrating west and invoking a "scorched earth" policy to slow advance of Japanese forces invading from Shanghai and Nanking, during the second Sino-Japanese war. Long line of Chinese refugees making the trek on foot and transporting their belongings on hand-pulled carts. Chinese entering a library, a school, and a hospital to salvage contents and take them west. Chinese people pulling amazing large loads on carts. Narrator says they salvaged hundreds of millions of pounds of machinery from factories. Trucks and oxen being employed to move goods and equipment on a two thousand mile journey westward. A huge crowd of refugees gathered along a railroad, all rise up from the ground as a steam locomotive appears in the distance. Closeup of Chinese people climbing into rail cars. A glimpse of some intrepid travelers climbing atop the cars. Next, the crowd works to dismantle the railroad, placing rails and ties aboard the train for future use and to deprive the Japanese of them. View of the train, moving slowly, with people occupying every imaginable place. Many crowd the front of the locomotive, itself. Scenes of other trains show many persons riding on tarpaulins that have been tied across the tops of rail cars. Some simply sit on the car roofs. Others are Jam-packed together on open air flat cars. Sampans and barges loaded with refugees and supplies are seen moving westward on China's rivers. Closeups of vessels filled with people. Passengers rowing and working to move the boats. Lines of Chinese crewmen pulling their boats upstream through narrow river gorges. Closeups of gangs of men pulling on tow ropes, as men on the boats assist using long poles to push the boats forward. People walking with backpacks. Narrator speaks of 30 million people moving westward. More scenes of the masses of humanity on the trek.
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