'A Year in America' discusses experience of Japanese exchange student in American university in a dramatic enactment. Japanese student prepares to leave Indiana University he packs his belongings and walks out of dorm room. He pauses to carve his initials in a wooden bridge railing where others have done before. In flashback the Japanese student visits the office of the foreign student advisor. Foreign students sit outside the office. The advisor informs the Japanese student about the living quarters, funding, and other administrative information during the interview. The student is greeted by his American roommate in their dormitory room. A chair piled with used clothes. A pair of Chuck Taylor sneakers hang from the ‘Clothes Chair’. The Japanese student expresses disappointment from the sloppy surroundings. He turns his head to see photos of girls and a pin-up poster on display. The American student tidies up the space and helps the Japanese student take off his coat. The two roommates talk. 1951.
A Japanese graduate student consults with the international student advisor Indiana University. The student advisor talks on the phone. The Japanese student and his advisor view a bulletin board together. The advisor suggests to the student of joining 'The Camera Club' and 'The International Dance Club' as extracurricular activities. Japanese student dances with an international student. The student begins to play a record. Japanese student dances the Sakura Saku Ondo folk dance. Other international students watch the performance. Japanese student reads a book from his desk. Japanese student meets with other members of the camera club. Members of the club take pictures and discuss their interest in photography. Photography club members take pictures of a posing girl. 1951.
Male students chatting inside a dorm at Indiana University (INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON 107 S. Indiana Avenue Bloomington, IN 47405-7000 Phone: 812-855-4848). A Japanese graduate student checks a camera film. The Japanese student shows his film to his friend. Japanese student with his American roommate at a vegetable farm. American roommate shows the Japanese student his hand tractor. An American Midwest rural family of a couple and their children having a lunch or dinner meal at a dining room table with a Japanese student. The father talks to their foreign guest. Japanese student eating fried chicken. The family and their guest sit in the living room and watch a television broadcast of a United Nations meeting. View of the console television set they are watching. The men and women discussing the television program.
Japanese diplomats in the United States. Car and bus traffic of 1950s cars on street in Washington Dc with the United States Capitol building in the background. Elected Japanese representatives climb up stairs of the U.S. assembly. The U.S. Vice President Allen W Barkley and Secretary David Rice Atchison receives Japanese representatives and shake hands with them. They pose. Building of the United Nations (The temporary United Nations Headquarters building in Lake Success, Long Island, New York, in the Sperry Gyroscope Corp building.) Japanese representatives go in the building. Warren Austin, a U.S. delegate stands and shakes hands with the representatives. They sit in hall, wear headphones and listen to the translated discussions. Scene changes to Paris, with car traffic on street and Arc de Triomphe in background. Building of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization). Japanese representatives get in the building. Meeting in session. Representatives of Japan, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Japanese representative addresses and shakes hands with the UNESCO president and other members.
Montage of scenes from naval battles involving Japanese aircraft attacking U.S. warships in the Pacific, during World War 2 . A Nakajima B6N torpedo bomber flying low over water through heavy antiaircraft fire from U.S. warships. It is struck and begins smoking. Pilot calls out as he dives the airplane into a U.S. aircraft carrier, which explodes. Another Japanese pilot crying out in cockpit of his airplane. Japanese warplanes swarming around U.S. warship. Bombs exploding around and on a U.S. warship. Scenes of intense combat between attacking Japanese airplanes and defending U.S. warships. Flak puffs fill the sky. Tracer bullets seen everywhere. Japanese warplanes zooming over smoking U.S. warship and over a U.S. aircraft carrier. Smoke trailing from Japanese warplane. Smoke pouring from bombed U.S. warship. (Closeups of pilots in cockpits during combat are obvious insertions and not related to the actual battles.)
Nine Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" planes, in triangle formation, fly over the Japanese battleship, Nagato. Japanese officers seen on the bridge, including Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who is seen using binoculars. His Admiral's flag flies above the Japanese Naval Ensign on the mast of the battleship. Ship's Officers assembled on the bridge, review charts. Several officers on deck using instruments to determine sun elevation. Sailor sends blinker light signal. Another sends semaphore flag signals. A Japanese submarine is seen moving on the surface parallel to the course of the battleship. Japanese sailors at various lookouts using binoculars. A bugler blows call to battle stations. Nagato's 45-caliber 41-centimeter (16 inch) guns swing to port firing position. Crew members hurry to battle stations. View of engine room with pistons moving and sailor at controls. Camera pans heavy wake from the ship and focuses on starboard bow wave and then shifts views to wakes astern. A flight of three open cockpit Mitsubishi A5M ("Claude") aircraft is seen overhead. A Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance float plane passes close overhead. Glimpse of a warship's gun barrels. Several Mitsubishi A5M aircraft fly low overhead. Sailors wearing gas masks watch from a warship. Several different views of warships firing antiaircraft guns during training drill. A pair of A5M aircraft fly by as antiaircraft guns fire. A pair of Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance float planes pass. Smoke is seen coming from interior of ship. Sailors in gas masks rush to the source. Crewmen below decks don gas masks as part of the drill. Smoke obscures much ot the next scenes. View from deck of ship shows two 16-inch guns and heavy smoke (from funnels of battleships). Line of destroyers seen following behind other warships. Various views of heavy wakes from ships underway.