Film begins with peaceful scenes of Japan, including Mount Fuji; women in traditional Kimonos strolling among cherry blossoms; exquisite gardens; Geisha girls in traditional dress holding fans; and picturesque peasant farmers binding sheaves of grain. Evidence of Japan adopting Western styles and ways, shown by modern buildings, motor vehicles, and many Japanese in Western clothes going about their daily business on busy city streets. A Japanese stadium filled with spectators at a baseball game. One difference from an American baseball game is that the players are seen marching onto the field accompanied by a military band and later all sharing in raising the Japanese flag to start the event. View of line of players in jerseys as flag is raised (jersey team name Tomasyo?) Views of the baseball game underway. Baseball player with "Y" logo on front steps up to plate to bat. Scene changes to demonstrations of Japanese Navy as senior Naval Officers review Japanese sailors aboard a warship. A formation of Japanese warships underway. Closeup of a Japanese destroyer. A flotilla of Japanese warships being overflown by several formations of Naval aircraft. A flight of Kawanishi H6K Naval flying boats flying in loose formation. A parade of Japanese light and medium tanks including Type 95 Ha-Go tanks (some with offset turrets). View from rear of the parade. Many tanks crossing a field. Emperor Hirohito, riding a white horse, reviewing Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks and their crews standing at attention. Tanks raising dust as they move in formations on a road and in a field. Japanese infantry soldiers high step march in review past the Emperor on his white horse. Massed Japanese infantry on parade. View, again, of the high-stepping Japanese infantry marching past the Emperor as a segue to Italian infantry goosestepping on parade. Several views of such parades. Mussolini giving an impassioned speech to Italians from balcony on the Palazzo Venezia in Rome on November 4, 1938. A huge flat field filled with Italian SPAD XIII army biplanes parked in symmetric rows. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaking from a shelter, rallies his tribesmen to resist invasion by Italian forces. They are seen in tribal dress, armed with spears and ancient rifles, as they answer the Emperor's call. View of Italian L3 light tanks advancing across desert terrain. Italian cavalry charging. Italian infantry moving forward. Italian Caproni Ca.111bis light bomber in flight. Bombs dropping through the air. Barrages by batteries of Italian artillery. Shells striking a hilltop fortress. An open air stadium with one section containing many Japanese attendees waving Japanese flags. A Japanese statesman reading a speech in Japanese. View of the stadium filled with Italians. "Saluti" written on the edge of the section occupied by Japanese attendees. An Italian spokesman in black uniform welcomes the Japanese contingent. A Japanese translator stands beside him. Closeup of cheering Japanese who have heard the greeting translated. Scene shifts to Japanese infantry hi-stepping past Emperor Hirohito and immediately to Italian troops goosestepping and then to German troops goosestepping as they (according to narrator) march into Austria on March 13th 1938. View of German troops marching into Austrian town to cheers from civilians on sidewalks waving Nazi swastika flags and rendering Nazi salutes. Numerous utility vehicles carry German soldiers through the town. More German soldiers arriving in tanks and on motorcycles. Some arrive on horse-drawn caissons towing field artillery pieces.
Young men stand in a formation in the USSR during World War 2. They are all wearing dark trowsers and white sweat shirts. At a signal from their leader, they all reach down and each picks up two simulated hand grenades from the ground. Closeup of the "grenades." The then run through woods and jump over a rustic fence. Some pair up and use their joined hands to boost others into the air and over the fence. They leap over a fallen tree and then jump down a steep hill and up another. They run into a river, wade rapidly across it, and climb up the opposite bank, where they flop down throwing their "grenades" as they do so. They get up again and continue running.
The Anschluss. German military entry into Graz, Austria. German troops are welcomed by civilians. Civilians including women parade. They carry Nazi flags. Nazi flags hang from windows of buildings. People look out of the windows. A sign on a shop in the street reads 'Steirerfunk radio'
A clearing in the woods, Compiegne, France. German Honor Guard at attention, and their band plays. French Government plenipotentiaries, General Charles L.C. Huntzinger,Ambassador Noel, Rear Admiral Maurice R LeLuc, Air Corps General Georges Parisot, and Air Corps General Jean-Marie Joseph Bergeret, accompanied by German Quartermaster General , Lieutenant-General kurt von Tippelskirch, and German Colonel Thomas, walk towards a railroad car. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering are seated at a table. Following behind their German escorts, General Huntzinger salutes Hitler and the German delegation, with Admiral Le Luc, at his side. View of General Keitel's hands holding document as he reads preamble to the Armistice Agreement. View of three German bombers in flight.
The London Blitz. Sections of London ablaze from German bombing during Battle of Britain. US President Franklin Roosevelt signing H.R. 1946, Lend-Lease legislation in World War II. View of last page of H.R.1946, signed by Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and by President Roosevelt. United States sends war material to England. 'USA' written on Lend-Lease boxes being loaded on lorry after arrival in Britain. Huge crates of Lend-Lease war materiel on railroad flat cars pulled by locomotive. Smoke rises up from the engine. 'Machine tools, BULLARD, Bridgeport Conn.' written on crate in transit.
Crowds gathering around parliament during tense period on eve of British entry into World War II. Film opens showing several Well-dressed women political campaigners outside parliament, carrying placards for Churchill. They walk quickly through the crowd gathered there. London Bobbies trying to maintain order, urge several women with children to move back. View of the area thronged with people. A large group standing at the gates of the old palace yard, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). Several Bobbies are among the crowd. Blurred camera view from rapidly moving vehicle passing crowds gathered all around the area. Crowd gathered at the St. Stephens entrance, Houses of Parliament. The Evening Standard Newspaper front page displayed on a lamp post by vendor, reads: "Americans Told to Leave Britain." Closeup of equestrian statue of King Richard I, the Lionheart, at Parliament (Palace of Westminster).
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