Opening scene shows instructor on a raised platform drilling students in preliminaries for Kendo training. Next, the students divided into two large teams, charge each other in combat exercise. The students wear protective armor (Bogu) and wield wooden swords (Bokken).
Japanese Emperor Hirohito, riding a white horse, leads a procession of officers on a visit to Japanese troops engaged in training. They turn at a Torii (ceremonial gate). Troops are seen in formation and marching in precise formation. Next the emperor is seen wearing a white hat with a white plume, as he reviews a unit of mounted cavalry. Japanese soldiers take Calisthenics en masse in an open training ground. Closeup of Emperor Hirohito riding with an accompanying officer.Various views of the Emperor, one wearing a cloak. He speaks to assembled soldiers. Again, he is seen astride the white horse, wearing the ceremonial hat with white plume. He is followed by two officers, one of whom also wears a cap with white plume. The emperor walking to a podium followed by officers. He salutes and begins to speak. Profile of the Emperor speaking. A Shinto gate (Torii) is seen as the film concludes.
Snippets from various Japanese movies circa 1937. View of a Japanese coastal town . A Japanese man in western attire talks to his wife at home. The wife, wearing a kimono, looks away from her husband sadly. Cars driving on hilly road. A Japanese woman chatting as she sits between two men in the back of a convertible car in the countryside. A woman talks to a man smoking on a dock. She walks towards a docked cargo ship. Men and children fishing in the countryside. Cars and trains are seen moving on a bridge in the background. A man and a child walk past boats on the beach. The child avoids the waves as they walk.
Japanese Shinto pilgrims climbing Mount Fuji through a narrow mountain trail. More pilgrims carrying banners in rural road with view of Mount Fuji in the background.
Crew members seen at duty stations in a B-52. View from the cockpit as the B-52 approaches a KC-135 tanker aircraft in flight. Refueling boom of the tanker comes close to the B-52 windshield and then disappears from view above and behind. B-52 breaks off and pilot smiles.
B-29 bombers of the United States Army Air Force flying for Nagoya mission at the Japanese city of Nagoya during World War II. Nagoya as seen from a plane flying high. The railway tracks, roads and rivers of Nagoya as seen from the plane.