Map shows Nagoya, Yokohama and Tokyo. Narrator in Spanish discussing Nagoya as a great industrial city. View of buildings and temples in Nagoya and a family walking toward a temple. The making of fine china is shown: Workers work at machine. China plates and jars are displayed for drying process. Potter shapes pottery on a potter's wheel. Delicate pottery is made. China plates, cups, saucer and jars displayed. The making of locomotives is shown: Workers work at machines in the train factory. Interior of the factory. Steam locomotive is prepared. Main cab of locomotive is lowered from cables onto a waiting wheel chassis for final assembly. View of a newly completed steam locomotive rolling off of the production line in Nagoya.
American sailors occupy a Japanese naval base south of Yokohama in Japan. Destroyed Japanese aircraft are seen. Japanese workers prepare for the arrival of General MacArthur. A B-29 aircraft lands and General MacArthur gets down from the plane. Surrender ceremony takes place aboard United States Navy Battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), as large number of soldiers and sailors witness it. An 11-member Japanese delegation photographed by cameramen. Japanese Foreign Minister and General MacArthur sign the surrender papers. General Wainwright also signs them. A map shows Allied zones of occupation.
Film begins showing a map off Japan highlighting notable places including Mount Fuji, Tokyo Bay, cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Shimoda, and Oshima. View from a ship in Tokyo Bay, heading toward tall island in the distance. Scene shifts to a dozen women in traditional kimona dress singing and dancing on a bluff overlooking the water. A colorful horse circles about in the background as the women dance. Next, two women dressed in traditional kimona, carry large trays on their heads. Glimpse of three farmers with a horse. Views of heavy waves and clouds at waterfront. Strong wind blowing snow off a mountain peak. A speeding steam locomotive pulling a train along the shore of Tokyo Bay. Mount Fuji in the near background.
Walter Cronkite narrates news in front of map showing North and South Korea. View of the USS Pueblo being docked in Wonsan as shown by North Korean propaganda film. View of USS Pueblo front deck. USS Pueblo crew members raise their hands upon capture by North Korea. USS Pueblo Lieutenant Commander Lloyd Bucher and other crew members being led away by North Korean forces. Military equipment from USS Pueblo found by North Korean People’s Army. Gun turret in USS Pueblo. Rifles and ammunition from USS Pueblo. View of USS Pueblo. Map showing path of USS Pueblo from Yokohama to Sasebo in Japan. Image of a Japanese town, likely Sasebo, with United States navy men. Map of Korean coast. USS Pueblo Lieutenant Commander Lloyd Bucher (USS Pueblo Skipper) reads from a public “confession”. Bucher notes, "I organized watch sessions under the officer of the deck to record everything encountered...."
Animated map depicts the spread of Fascism in Japan, Germany and its neighboring countries, and Italy. Views of Italian Fascist "Black Shirts" marching bearing flags and rendering the fascist Roman Salute. Fascists participating in the famous "March on Rome" (“Marcia su Roma”) in October 27, 1922. Spectators line the sidewalks and side of the road. Brief (jerky) views of unrest and desperate crowds of citizens in post-war Italy circa 1919 and 1920 following World War I, due to unemployment and hard times. Italian people getting food at an outdoor soup kitchen. Fascists promising better times are seen parading and riding in jammed open cars. Benito Mussolini, who was elected to Parliament in 1921, is seen in a top hat, arms akimbo, standing with other officials. Glimpse of Black Shirts marching in front of the Palazzo Venezia (Via del Plebiscito, 118, 00186 Roma RM, Italy). Back to Mussolini, again, who now makes some remarks to those standing with him and expresses himself with exaggerated body language. Another glimpse of Black Shirts marching. Film transitions to Germany, where Adolf Hitler is seen walking through a dense crowd of supporters and some brownshirts or SA stormtroopers. Hitler's clothes resemble a military uniform. Next, scenes illustrating the terrible post-World War 1 hyperinflation suffered by Germany during the Weimar Republic. Various Deutschmark (Deutsche Mark) banknotes in ridiculous denominations are shown. Baker puts a 460 billion Deutschmark price on bread. People trying to buy groceries during this period. German militaristic marchers. Fascists giving arm salutes as they parade in a city street. General Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (President of Germany) is seen standing in front of Germany's top military leaders. Directly behind him is Marshal August von Mackensen, in a fur busby hat with Totenkopf (death head) insignia. Other Generals wear pickelhaube spiked helmets. Hindenburg's closest associate, General Erich Ludendorff stands just behind and to the left of Hindenburg. Glimpse of German soldiers in more modern uniforms. Next, Hindenburg is seen reviewing troops in the company of their commander. Next, Hitler is seen with a group of German civilian industrialists whose interests he promises to support. Alfred Krupp Jr. sits, with his legs crossed, next to Hitler. Glimpse of Hitler, in uniform, waving from a window. People running as a cadre of mounted police canter in formation down the street.
Idled ships and cranes at damaged port of Yokahoma, Japan, seen right after end of hostilities in World War 2. Port facilities reduced to steel skeletons from bombing by USAAF in the war. Camera pans over the city from a high point of land. Ocean in background. Wide swaths of completely burned-out areas in the foreground. There is hardly any notable human activity. Scene changes completely to aerial view from aircraft flying overhead. Brief glimpse of a U.S. B-24 Liberator bomber flying below, close to the ground (probably preparing to land). Aerial view of airfield in distance.