U.S. Air Force General Hap Arnold meeting with other allied military chiefs at the Potsdam conference, following the end of World War II, in Europe. General Arnold gives a speech during the 38th Anniversary of air power in the United States. Military band plays during the ceremony. General Henry steps from airplane and shakes hands with some of his Air Force Commanders in the Pacific theater. B-29 Super fortresses bombing Japan.Bombardier seen inside B-29 Super fortress. View of General of the Army, Henry (Hap) Arnold. Aircraft of the Air Force demonstration team, The Thunderbirds, in flight. September 18, 1947, formation of the United States Air Force as a separate service. January, 1950, the funeral of General Arnold at Arlington Cemetery, Virginia. Arnold Engineering Development Center building in Tullahoma, Tennessee. President Harry Truman dedicates the Center. B-47 and B-52 bombers taking off. Various Air Force aircraft seen taking off. Views of the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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.
Events after World War II. Harvesting in U.S. farms. Closeup view as a tractor plows fields. Men on horseback driving sheep. Woman serves a Thanksgiving turkey dinner to her family gathered at a nice dining room table in the United States. Her children look at the food with smiles. Contrasting scenes show Europeans starving amid post-war ruins. Women and children looking for food. A child in a soup line. Women wait in a line to receive grain that is weighed on a scale (possibly Soviet area). Globe spins. Joseph Stalin and other Soviet officials watch a military parade in Red Square in Russia. Retrospective scenes of the meeting of Russian and U.S. troops at the Elbe River late in World War 2. Communist rally in Paris. A protester holds up a hammer and sickle symbol. A demonstration of protestors in Athens, Greece, and another Communist demonstration in Rome, Italy. Map depicts communist control growing over Central and Eastern Europe early in Cold War. High aerial view of Washington DC with a lower altitude airplane flying over the U.S. Capitol. Exterior view of State Department (Old Executive Office Building) in Washington DC. View of Secretary of State James F Byrnes working at his desk. Byrnes speaks of U.S. role in world affairs while at a conference in Stuttgart, Germany. Scenes from a meeting of the Big Four foreign ministers in 1947. Scenes changes to North Portico of White House. Swearing in ceremony of George C. Marshall as Secretary of State. President Harry S Truman shakes hands with Secretary George Marshall. Night view of London landmark buildings. View of door at No. 10 Downing Street in London. View of brutal winter conditions in Europe in February 1947. Citizens try to dig out a train stuck in snow. Women in line in Britain for a rationed good, still saddled with its own postwar reconstruction. Narrator relates that Britain was unable to continue to provide massive military and economic aid to the Greek regime and appealed to the U.S. to handle the situation. Secretary of State Marshall and President Truman seen talking together in front of a fireplace mantle. Marshall boards aircraft for a visit to Moscow. Truman in a White House meeting, seated at oval table with his advisors and cabinet. Truman addressing joint session of congress on March 12, 1947. He asks for funds for Greece and Turkey. Globe highlights USSR. Door sign reads 'Policy Planning Staff - George F Kennan - Director'. Director Kennan seen at his desk. He advocates a long term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies. Reconstruction in Europe. Ground level and aerial views of bomb destroyed European cities, and workers cleaning up rubble. Brief scene from the meeting of 16 nations in Paris on July 3, 1947. Scenes from United Nations meeting held in Lake Success New York in September 1947. George Marshall at podium addressing delegates of UN. Russian delegate Andrey Vyshinsky commenting on Marshall Plan. Signing of Marshall Plan agreement by international delegates meeting in Paris in September 1947.
Camera pans over damaged areas of Yokahoma, after end of World War 2. Many buildings are damaged in a Wide area of canals and roads. Shells of larger concrete buildings standing amidst wide area of destroyed smaller buildings. Complete change of scene, to U.S. African-American airman, wire-brushing the Japanese red ball roundel from fuselage of a captured Japanese airplane.
The war crimes trial in Tokyo, Japan after World War II. Prosecuting attorney, Mr Joseph B. Keenan questions Japanese former Minister of Education Koichi Kido. Officials seated in the court room. Keenan trying to establish that a Minister of Education in Japan was more than the title. It implies that he was a leading member of the government in formulating policy. He talks about the relationship of Kido with Prince Fumimaro Konoe. He was a leading member of Prince Kanoe's cabinet.
The war crimes trial in Tokyo, Japan after World War II. Prosecuting attorney, Mr Joseph B. Keenan questions Japanese former Minister of Education Koichi Kido. Officials seated in the court room. Keenan trying to establish that a Minister of Education in Japan was more than the title. It implies that he was a leading member of the government in formulating policy. He talks about the sending of a large number of Japanese troops in China by Kido serving under Prince Klanoe's cabinet. Officials discuss amongst themselves.