Background information for United States occupation forces in Japan after end of World War II. At start, the film shows sky filled with U.S. Navy airplanes flying in formations. They include Vought F4U Corsair aircraft, among others, and are seen overhead above the Battleship USS Missouri (BBB-63). Closeup of the USS Missouri with her crew in formation on deck wearing dress whites. Next, General Douglas MacArthur is seen and heard speaking from a podium on the Missouri's deck. He invites the representatives of the Emperor of Japan, and the Japanese Government, and the Japanese Imperial headquarters, to sign the instrument of surrender. The date is September 2, 1945, just after the end of World War 2. Closeups of the Japanese delegation, which includes envoys Foreign Minister Mamora Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu, and of MacArthur. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamora Shigemitsu sits at a table. Closeups of him signing the surrender document. Change of scene to Japan, where camera pans over many thousands of Japanese people assembled to learn of their fate. Closeups of Japanese soldiers and family members, as Narrator asks how should the U.S. occupying force treat them. View of soldiers in plain non-military uniforms. Views of Japanese responding en masse to a leader, during World War 2. Views of child victims of the war. Closeup of Japanese soldier firing a short barrel light machine gun. Views of Japanese pedestrians including families, most in western dress. Japanese workers in an office. Film shows artists view of one worker's brain, and then many brains, as Narrator refers to need for reorienting Japanese thinking. View of learned wise Japanese leader at a podium. View of a Japanese soldier posed with his sword above the head of a war prisoner. Japanese mother feeding her baby. Closeups of Japanese babies. Closeups of Japanese school age children, in a group, and some doing things in school, and some at a playground. Group of uniformed Japanese students studying the art of Japanese calligraphy. Students doing artwork, studying nature outdoors, and paying attention to a teacher using a black board to explain how to calculate volumes of different shaped vessels. Students in classes of Geography and of geology. Japanese chemists, architects, and lawyers at work. Telephone switchboard operators at work. Electrified train moving on a track.
Hard times in the Great Depression led to formation of The Bonus Army. American veterans of World War 1 march on streets of Washington DC, carrying a large poster demanding immediate cash redemption their "bonus" service certificates awarded by Congress in 1924 (but not lawfully payable until 1945). Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, ordered by President Hoover, to clear the Bonus Army encampments, is seen standing in a street surrounded by several U.S. Army troops. People watch from sidewalks as a contingent of U.S. Army cavalry rides down the street. U.S. Army M-1917 tanks roll down Pennsylvania Avenue in July 1932. Bonus marchers and others watch from Lafayette Park in background. Scene shifts to the 1932 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago Stadium, Chicago, where delegates cheer after nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt as their Presidential candidate. Roosevelt seen waving from the podium. Migrant farm workers seen at temporary, dilapidated dwellings in close quarters, and sitting at a campfire, some with sad and desperate faces. Migrant farm workers' cars on the road, piled high with family belongings during westward migration. Migrants riding atop an open railroad freight car. Two men share a copy of the "Epic News" newspaper (published by supporters of Upton Sinclair and the End Poverty Movement in Los Angeles and central California). Narrator describes programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Construction workers ignite demolition charges during construction of Boulder Dam (aka Hoover Dam and officially so-named in 1947). Glimpse of President Roosevelt at the site in an open car, for its dedication on September 30, 1935. Construction workers engaged in building the dam. Another shot of President Roosevelt in his open car. Towers being erected to carry electric power from the dam's hydroelectric generators. President Franklin D. Roosevelt smiling broadly at the formal dedication ceremony, September 30, 1935. Controlled discharges of water through the dam. Views of the Boulder Dam hydroelectric generating station. Oil well rigs or oil derricks at work during construction at night. People at work in fabric mills or textile mills, and in a print shop
Opening scene shows dimly lit hallway of Federal District Court building in San Francisco. Camera focuses on a courtroom door inscribed as " U.S. District Court, 258, Louis E. Goodman." Officials are seen escorting International Longshoreman's Union (ILWU) President, Harry Bridgers, along a hallway, accompanied by many photographers. Bridger's lawyer, Carol Weiss King and her co-counsel, wearing dark rimmed glasses, are seen standing in the hallway. Closeup of them. He holds up a copy of legal papers. View from further down the hall as Bridgers stops briefly to converse with them. Another closeup of Bridger's lawyers. (Note: Harry Bridgers was prosecuted for his labor organizing and supposed subversive status by the Justice Department in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, with the goal of deportation. This was never achieved. Bridges became a naturalized citizen in 1945. A final effort by the Justice Dept. to deport Bridges ended in 1955 when Judge Louis E. Goodman dismissed the department's civil action to denaturalize him)
President Harry S Truman holds his last official cabinet meeting in Washington DC. The President with his cabinet team seated around a table. He is presented with a chair at the head of the table. Plate on chair reads 'The President April 1945.' New York: President-elect Dwight D Eisenhower with his future official family poses for pictures. The future President with his cabinet seated and standing.
Dedication ceremony of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (The Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia, United States. Sculptor Felix de Weldon and photographer Joe Rosenthal shake hands with the statue of flag raising in the background. Chaplain says a prayer at a ceremony. Spectators seated with their hats off. President's car comes own the drive way followed by others. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower walks with Navy personnel. Vice President Richard Nixon talks to a Marine who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Nixon poses with the three survivors of the original flag raising at Iwo Jima. Statue of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. A sign at the base of the statue reads 'Felix de Weldon 1945-1954'.
Views from U.S. boat moving among Japanese submarines in Sasebo Bay, Japan, during Operation Road's End, involving the scuttling of the Japanese submarine fleet. Seen are submarines: I-47; I-162; I-156l;n-203;I-158;I-103;107;I-58. An American launch pulls up to I-58 (the sub that sank the USs Indianapolis on July 31, 1945, in the Philippine Sea).Vice-Admiral Robert M. Griffin, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Japan, climbs aboard the sub, followed by other members of his party. Admiral Griffin walks the deck of the submarine, followed by a Rear Admiral, who points out some features of the boat to Admiral Griffith. View of the group standing on the deck of the I-58.
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