Operation "Roads End,"involving the post-war scuttling of the Japanese submarine fleet. U.S. sailors opening boxes of demolition charges on the deck of Japanese Sen Toku I-400-class submarine aircraft carrier, number I-402, moored in Sasebo Bay, Japan. (It was converted to a tanker sub, and completed only 3 weeks before the end of the war, and never placed in service. I-402 is one of only 3 such boats ever completed.) A U.S. Navy launch, approaches and ties up to the I-402. Close view of the submarine as the launch approaches. Vice Admiral Robert M. Griffin, commander of U.S. Naval Forces,Japan, a Rear Admiral, and a Captain, climb from the launch onto the submarine. Scene shifts to a smaller sub ,tied up next to the I-402, where an U.S. Army Colonel, and Navy Captain, are conferring with a Japanese officer. A utility boat is tied up in the background. The Army colonel goes into a hatch leading below decks followed by the Navy Captain. Next scene shows Admiral Griffin emerging from an open hatch on the deck of the I-402. He speaks to a navy Commander standing nearby. Empty explosives boxes, previously seen, are now stacked in a pile near the boat's conning tower. Camera shows a Japanese aircraft carrier moving past a Japanese submarine. View from deck of the I-402, showing the smaller sub to the right, and another Japanese sub, behind, with smoke rising from it. High hills overlooking the bay, in background. Admiral Griffin conversing with the Rear Admiral. Japanese crew lounging on the utility boat next to the I-402. Group of American officers conversing near the hangar door of the I-402. View downward from the conning tower, of the admirals and other officers. U.S. Army Colonel points out something on deck of nearby small submarine. An I-400 class submarine and a Japanese cruiser. Japanese sailor opens hangar door of I-402. Admiral Griffin and his aide, inspect inside. The two admirals and the Captain examining the hangar.All the American officers gathered on deck of the I-402.
Japanese submarine underway. Japanese Navy personnel marching on drill ground. Instructor teaches naval students in a class room. Portrait of Admiral Tojo. Japanese Navy students listen and watch during training. Models of various types of Japanese submarines. Portrait of Japanese naval officer. Park shows Japanese submarine, used as training model. Japanese sailors work on controls in engine room of the submarine. World map displayed on wall. Small Japanese submarine underway. Freighter burns after being torpedoed. Some newspaper clippings in Japanese showing images of Germany's Adolf Hitler. Map shows South West Pacific Area stretching all the way to United States and a picture of the submarine on the map.
Japanese soldiers and U.S. Army soldiers inspect Japanese equipment in Japan, soon after end of World War 2. Enlisted men inspect Japanese equipment. Japanese soldiers and enlisted men go through Japanese equipment. View of Japanese radio equipment and wrecked equipment. Japanese guards march. Japanese soldier look into radio equipment. Enlisted man looks into Japanese gun sights.
United States soldiers visit a Shinto Shrine during military occupation of Japan after WW2. A smiling Japanese woman. Two Americans enter a Japanese establishment where they attempt to follow Japanese customs, seated on the floor, sipping tea, and eating seafood with chopsticks. Japanese women look at sign advertising the movie, "Mother wore Tights" starring Betty Grable. The two Japanese women smile while viewing the sign. Scenes at U.S. Military sponsored Fair, called "Panoramic View of USA." where Japanese visitors tour smaller scale models and facsimiles of major American sites and landmarks, such as the White House, Pittsburgh "City of Steel", and famous American skyscrapers. Japanese parents and children are seen looking at Christmas displays in a local store, that includes a Santa Claus. Under the American occupation, Boy Scouts were revived in Japan. At an International Jamboree, scouts hold out a flag reading: " International Boy Scouts Troop 3, Yokohama, Japan." Japanese Boy Scouts pitch their tents and cook over campfires. American and Japanese Scoutmasters converse.
Film opens showing narrator, Japanese General Baron Sadao Araki, speaking. He is silhouetted in front of the red ball on a huge Japanese flag. Next, are scenes from Japanese mobilization and invasion of Manchuria. several Japanese troops are seen firing a 37mm gun, from a shallow trench, as a gun crew member spots from behind them using a pair of binoculars. A group of Japanese soldiers observing from a hill. Japanese troops advancing across barren terrain. Closeup of some descending a hill. A military steam locomotive displaying the Japanese flag, on a railroad track in the snow. Glimpse of soldiers atop the train. Japanese troops crossing a rice paddy on trail of brush and grass and slogging down a hill of mud. Troops moving in motor convoys of trucks. A Type 92 Osaka Armored Car driving fast past the camera. A troop train moving slowly out of a station, as crowds waving Japanese flags see the soldiers off. Army nurses in uniform with red cross armbands, march out the gate of a large building. Teachers and students pray for their troops, at a Shinto shrine. A woman using a megaphone rallies support for the war effort. Civilians supporting war effort line up to deliver packages for delivery to the troops. School children in a classroom write letters to the troops. A supply center where all kinds of useful items are being packaged in "comfort bags" for delivery to the troops. A large pile of comfort bags.
Point of view shot from rear car of railroad train being pulled by a steam locomotive over the South Manchuria Railway in the Japanese-controlled South Manchuria Railway Zone. View of railroad tracks stretching out over plains and flatlands behind, and smoke from the locomotive drifts behind. The train is stopped at a sign reading Manchuria (in Cyrillic) and in Chinese. The locomotive emits steam. Camera pans to a railroad station building at the side of the railroad. Next is seen, a small Japanese graveyard containing several stone monuments and a number of upright grave markers. The ground is snow-covered. Change of scene shows two groups of high-flying military aircraft in V formations. The next scene is an aerial view from an airplane flying over a river valley surrounded by rugged terrain. Next is seen a column of Japanese Army vehicles moving across snow-covered terrain. An armored car moves ahead of the column. (It is a Secherad-Panzerkraftwagen Sumida, Model 2590, armored car.) A long column, of mostly army trucks, follows. Japanese soldiers, carrying rifles with fixed bayonets,escort a soldier carrying their unit colors, furled and in a case. An informal group of Japanese soldiers, watch from nearby. A long column of Japanese infantry, move across desert terrain. A troop column interspersed with vehicles, continues over rugged desert terrain. A column of military vehicles. Aerial view of Japanese bombers in loose V formation. One circles slowly. An unidentified Japanese twin engine high wing monoplane (possibly amphibian) with open cockpit, drops a torpedo, or bomb. Sudden scene change to a bomb falling and explosions on the ground as bombs strike. Pursuit aircraft maneuvering. Three Japanese Mitsubishi 2MB1 - Type 87 bombers in formation, dropping many bombs. Aerial views of bombs striking, and ground views of explosions.