Japanese 9th Division regular army troops marching outside a compound in Shanghai, China. Soldiers with bayonets sit on top of a moving truck. Soldiers hold a Japanese flag while sitting on top of supplies from a moving truck. Japanese soldiers cross the Huangpu Creek bridge. Soldiers with bayonets marching in the International Settlement of Shanghai. Kenkichi Ueda, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Imperial Army standing in front of a barracks. General Ueda and soldiers enter the barracks together. Soldiers firing artillery at Shanghai. Shanghai being bombarded. Japanese gunners pull artillery back into place with ropes after recoil drives cannon backwards. An artillery fires more shells. A burning house. Japanese soldier riding a motorcycle with sidecar. A Japanese soldier uses a pair of binoculars. Thick smoke forms over Shanghai. Japanese soldiers running in Shanghai. Soldiers running past a tank. Type 87 Model 25 Vickers Crossley "Dowa" armored car equipped with two Vickers 303 machine guns moving down street. Inside view of Type 87 Model 25 armored car. Japanese soldiers firing with machine guns next Type 87 Model 25. A dead Chinese man lying on the snow. Japanese soldiers firing with machine guns beside a tank. Japanese soldiers standing on a bridge. Japanese soldiers capture Chinese spies dressed as women and farmers. Two Japanese soldiers support an injured comrade. Chinese captives kneeling beside Japanese soldiers at train depot. Chinese refugees leaving Shanghai on foot. Chinese locals stand on boats sailing out of Shanghai. Panicking crowds leaving Shanghai en masse.
The Huangpu River in Shanghai, China. A vessel in the Huangpu River. A sail boat and junks on the water. Several buildings in view on the shore. Several sail boats in the river. A paddle wheel steam boat on the water. Boats anchored to the shore. Views of the Shanghai Bund along the western bank of the Huangpu River. Several vessels in the river. The Camelback Truss Waibaidu Bridge (world's first all steel bridge) also known as the Garden Bridge, spanning Suzhou Creek at the Huangpu River. Several buildings at the Shanghai Bund in view including the Headquarters of the Shanghai Branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (now known as the HSBC Building or the Municipal Government Building) at number 12, The Bund, and the Customs House at number 13, The Bund, and the China Bank of Communications Building at number 14, The Bund. Also the China Merchant Bank Building and the North China Daily News Building (now the AIA building). Other Bund buildings also seen.
Visit of U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger to People's Republic of China. Dr. Kissinger in his plane. Interior views of aircraft cabin as Kissinger has a drink and talks to a Chinese dignitary. Other members of American delegation confer with other Chinese dignitaries. Kissinger drinks a cup of tea aboard. A secretary aboard types on a typewriter. Dr. Kissinger waves hands and debarks from his plane at Shanghai Air Port. Chinese dignitaries welcome him. Other delegates debark from plane and shake hands with dignitaries. A motorcade drives on countryside roads. Posters and banners in Chinese script.
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.
Opening scene shows the famous image of American battleship USS Arizona as attacked by Japanese forces in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ship is engulfed in black smoke, and listing. Change of scene to a waterfront in Japan during 1938, where numerous Japanese soldiers board troop ships bound for Manchuria, China. Next, are scenes of Japanese troops marching as they occupy Manchuria. Closeups of some Japanese soldiers. Scene shifts to a train moving on the South Manchurian railway, at a station showing a sign reading,"Chin Hsien." View of steam locomotive pulling a train away from the camera position. (Narrator states that a Japanese train, on the South Manchurian Railway, had been dynamited) This incident triggered a Japanese attack on Mukden, Manchuria. Japanese infantry are seen placing numerous bundles of reeds as a bridge across a wide, shallow, stream and proceeding to cross on their way to invade Mukden. Military supplies are carried on pack animals. In the air, overhead Japanese Mitsubishi G3M Type 96 land-based attack aircraft are seen flying in precision "V" formation. On the ground, Chinese civilians run for cover in the City of Mukden. (The date is September 18, 1931.) Glimpse of Chinese civilians looking at bombing victims on street of Mukden. Brief view of Geneva Switzerland, where League of Nations was housed. A memorial stone monument in that city to Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States and founder of the League of Nations. An entrance to the League of Nations headquarters in the Palais Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland. League delegates in session inside the Palais Wilson. A Japanese Naval Fleet, under command of Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura, is seen steaming toward the Chinese coast and begin a naval bombardment, firing their guns, 15 miles from Shanghai. Japanese Naval biplanes are seen in flight overhead. Japanese troops marching in the streets of Shanghai, as sidewalks of onlookers wave Japanese flags. Next, Japanese troops are seen marching out of Shanghai, at the insistence of the League of Nations. (Narrator states Japan signed a truce with China on May 4th, 1932.) View of Japanese troops entering further, into Mongolia. Japanese soldiers waving flag celebrating formation of the Puppet State of Manchuko in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, in 1932. Japanese statesmen leaving the League of Nations headquarters, after Japan resigned from the League on February 24, 1933. Japanese infantry moving further into China supported by field artillery fire. Explosions from artillery and damaged buildings, as Japanese troops advance in China. Invaders using tall ladders to scale walls of a damaged fortress in China. Japanese pilots receiving briefing and boarding their Mitsubishi Ki-30 single engine light bomber aircraft at an airfield. View of them taking off and inflight, dropping bombs on Chinese targets. Aerial views of bombs exploding on ground below. Retreating Chinese army marching along the Great Wall of China. Chinese people and military forces moving their military and civilian resources deep into the Chinese interior.
Historic visit of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon to the People's Republic of China. President Nixon talks with Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing. President with First Lady Pat Nixon, other delegates review an honor guard and shake hands with Chinese dignitaries. Chinese banners are seen in the background. President Nixon with Zhou Enlai and party flies in the U.S. Air Force One aircraft for a resort city. The party visits a public park. Chinese band plays music in the background. President Nixon and Patricia Nixon wave hands during their departure from Beijing. A large welcoming crowd awaits Air Force One and cheers. President Nixon and dignitaries disembark. President Nixon addresses about his visit to China. President Nixon boards the Air Force One to Hangzhou, China. View of the Xi Lake, also known as the West Lake, at Hangzhou. President Nixon and Mrs. Nixon visit the West Lake of Hangzhou and Shanghai, China. Children playing jump rope. Chinese men and women cycling on the streets of Shanghai. President Nixon and Mrs. Nixon wave at the crowd before leaving Shanghai. Animated maps show China and the United States. View of the Air Force One arrival at Washington DC. Nixon’s daughter Tricia Nixon Cox welcomes her parents. President Nixon makes a speech after his arrival from China.