United States soldiers enter the village of Saint-Marcouf, in the Manche department in Normandy, France during World War 2. Soldiers pass by sign “Saint-Marcouf”. United States troops carry rifles. French villagers walking. Soldiers talk to an old French man and woman. Soldiers sitting on the street side of what is now known as the “Route du 5 Juin 1944”. Soldier smoking a cigarette during a break. Groups of soldiers crowd outside a damaged house. Soldiers talking to a French man. A soldier talks to children. A little girl points upwards. A statue of the Virgin Mary stands among the rubble. A statue of Jesus Christ on the Cross leaning sideways inside a church wrecked. Words by George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army says “No compromise is possible and the victory of the democracies can only be complete with the utter defeat of the war machines of Germany and Japan”. A “V” is superimposed over marching soldiers and a ringing Liberty Bell.
Nationalist Chinese school books with anti-Japanese propaganda. Slate reads “Slogans in school books: “Down with Japan” “Oust the Japanese””. Schoolbook depicts anti-Japanese propaganda. Illustration shows Japanese soldiers aiming their bayonets at the Chinese. Another children’s schoolbook. A cartoon with Japanese invaders depicted as tigers. Chinese men taming a Japanese tiger in bed. An anti-Japanese pamphlet circulating in China. Anti-Japanese newspaper headlines posted in public display case on sidewalk in China. Chinese men reading newspapers posted on outdoor display boards on sidewalk.
A stylist grooms a woman, wearing fashionable go-go boots and polka-dotted micro mini dress. An British women's rights and feminist organization, marching on the street holding signs and placards with messages like “Equal Pay NOW!” and “Free Contraception” during the first women's liberation march. The crowned Miss World 1966, Reita Faria, smiles. Women wrestlers. A female wrestler throws her opponent, a black woman, on the wrestling ring floor. A mass wedding inside a stadium in Japan. Miss World 1966, Reita Faria, smiles with Miss World 1966 runner-up contestants (Miss Brazil- Marlucci Rocha, Miss Greece- Efi Fontini Plumbi, Miss Yugoslavia- Nikica Marinovic, Miss Italy-Gigliola Carbonara). Two policewomen, patrolling the street together, salute at the camera. Opening sequence of “Echo Newsreel” featuring a scene of various topics, such as the Big Ben Tower.
The strafing and bombing of Japanese installations in the Pacific Theater by the U.S. aircraft during World War II. Aerial view of the target area. Smoke rises from explosions on the ground. Buildings on the ground. Smoke arises from explosions on the island as seen from gun camera footage of U.S. aircraft attacking Japanese enemy targets.
Film opens showing a large well equipped gymnasium in a Japanese school. Some boys are holding onto climbing ropes, watching as several boys run toward the camera, jumping over obstacles. Two of them do somersault vaults over theirs. Next, a large group of boys in meager undershorts and bathing caps run down down the steps of their school behind their teacher, who wears a regular bathing suit. Next, the boys run under a battery of showers to enter a swimming pool. One takes a large beach ball with him. Several closeups follow, of boys and girls standing in front of their school building. Film ends showing very closeup views of an individual boy and girl.
A private high-wing parasol monoplane takes off and passes directly over the camera. A glimpse of factories and smoke stacks in the background, during takeoff. From that airplane, the Japanese ocean liner, Chichibu Maru, is seen underway in water below. Scene shifts completely to interior of a Japanese steel mill, where fiery molten steel rushes out of an open hearth furnace; fire shoots upward from a bessemer converter furnace; A conveyer transports a large crucible of molten steel inside a plant; closeup of its contents being poured into another container. An open hearth furnace about to disgorge its molten steel, with some already running out. Japanese steel workers standing on platform as a crucible of flaming steel passes on a conveyer. Molten steel flaming brightly in various areas within the steel mill as conveyer moves a large crucible in foreground. Closeup of a flaming steel-filled crucible. Scene shifts to workers in a Japanese shipyard. A number of commercial ships are in the waters behind them. Camera changes focus to scaffolding surrounding a large ocean-going ship under construction. Next it shows another nearly-completed ship with "Chichibu Maru" painted on her hull. Next, the Chichibu Maru is seen going down the ways as she is launched on 8 May, 1929. (She would complete fitting out on 10 March, 1930.) Closeup of the hull as she plunges into the water on launch. Some crew and yard workers look down from her deck. Banners are displayed from the launching ceremony. View from a small boat moving around the Chichibu Maru, as she departs on an ocean voyage. Her passengers line the decks, waving goodbyes.