Battle of China
Shanghai being bombed by the Japanese in 1934.
The film says China is history, land, and people. The move then goes in to those three topics. (And its very heavily favoring the Chinese, who almost appear to be perfect people in the movie.)
“A blueprint for world conquest.” A book written in 1927 by a Japanese “baron” Tanaka (the Japanese foreign minister), stating China would be the first to be attacked when Japan sought world conquest. Manchuria would be taken first, and then China proper. I have the entire document here.
The next phase would be to move south and take over India and the islands to the south and east, along with Australia.
The next phase would have been to go east and attack the US directly.
The movie than asks how Japan could take China which is so much bigger and with so many people. It says the first reason was that there was no true central government; China consisted of a large number of areas under the rule of different people.
The “god-emperor and his fanatic warlords” in Japan, "perverting" ideas of Western civilization for their military uses.
The attack on Manchura in 1931. The movie sort of tries to tie in the invasion of Manchuria to the German and Italian early strikes in WWII, even though the two have nothing to do with each other.
1937, and Japan increases its attacks on China, worried that the country could become unified and oppose them more effectively.
The Chinese forces launch an counter-attack on Shanghai.
The movie then goes into more detail on the battle around Shanghai, pointing out that Japanese naval gunfire stopped the Chinese advance into the city and forced them to fall back.
Japanese forces landed south of the city and attacked North, to outflank the Chinese forces.
The Japanese then bombed the city of Shanghai to punish the civilian population. (By the way, parts of the film are somewhat gruesome in relation to the showing of dead bodies.)
The Japanese forces then move towards Nanking.
The American boat Panay that was attacked by the “blood-crazed” Japanese.
The city falls after a “valiant” defense by Chinese forces.
The film then goes into the “Rape of Nanking” with a lot of scenes that might prove to be too much for the sensitive viewer. Nothing is being held back in this video. Parts of the video are from materials smuggled out by an American missionary.
China becomes unified to fight the Japanese invaders.
The Chinese staged a “scorched earth” policy to slow the Japanese advance to give themselves time to move their factories to the west.
Chinese biplanes go against the Japanese aerial armada being directed against the new temporary Chinese capital, Chung King.
The Japanese planes bomb the city. Unlike in other Chinese cities, though, caves have been dug to house the people and protect them from the bombing. The factories had also been relocated underground (something the Japanese were doing towards the end of WWII themselves).
The Japanese blockaded the coasts and took over the ports, forcing China to get the materials it needed via two ancient routes, shown in white.
There was a third choice which needed a new section of road to be built over rough mountains to link two other sections of roads. This was the Burma Road that they were building, and it took about a year.
Although Japan was bogged down in China, it decided to proceed with the rest of the Tanaka plan, which included attacking the East Indies and the U.S.
The Japanese then attacked Pearl Harbor.
The third phase of their plan, the conquest of the East Indies area, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Mayala, etc, proceeded, at first, exactly as they had hoped.
The Japanese then cut the Burma Road and attacked another major Chinese city. The Chinese laid a trap and the Japanese forces had to fall back from the city and then were cut to pieces by pursuing Chinese forces.
Early 1944 and American forces are pushing back the Japanese.
More photos
Manchuria
China
FDR was so impressed by these “documentaries” that he urged them to be shown in public theaters. They became required viewing for American soldiers, and were distributed in other countries with soundtracks in French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.
One of the approaches used in making the series was to use as much enemy's own words and actions and then turn those against him. The Battle of China was finished in 1944.
(From War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War)
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