This is direct text book documentary propaganda. You could base a documentary class around this.It is Capra's World War II documentary about China's turmoil with Japan.Obviously, we were at war with Japan, and allied with China.Even today, it could fool some people, but most people have seen just how horrific those "marches" were.Back to back with Russia, China is shown in the film to strategically move everything Westward, away from Japan. Back to back with Russia, they could use industry, relatively safe with their ally, against Japan, because Russia had to do the same with Germany.The mass migration, the mass deployments, the mass use of labor, all are shown in true propaganda form as being strategic and heroic. Incredibly, these same images are used today to show immense brutality and inhumanity, as we value human life much more today.In the forties, patriotism and Nationalism were prize feelings, for better or worse.

The sixth installment in the "Why We Fight" series explores China's history, and Japan's four step plan to bring China and the U.S. under Imperial domination. The first step was the largely unopposed invasion and conquest of Manchuria in 1931, to be followed by the conquest of China proper for manpower. With an initial attack on Shanghai in 1932 largely ineffective, Japan waited another year before taking over another Chinese province, while attempting to stretch it's reach further westward as the Chinese retreated. China's strategy was to trade space for time in an effort to build their military supplies. However Japan hadn't counted on the fierce opposition of Chinese guerrilla bands who continuously harassed the enemy.Bogged down by an inability to complete the second phase of their strategy, Japan embarked on the third and fourth parts of their plan. By the time this film was produced, Japan was in the midst of that struggle, with mentions of campaigns in the Pacific and the attack on Pearl Harbor setting the stage for the seventh and final chapter of this documentary series. I found that to be rather interesting, as the series now more closely resembled a work in progress as opposed to the history of the conflict already presented in the first five chapters. Interesting too because brand new American fighting men seeing these films for the first time might still have harbored doubts about the war's outcome, even if their country was now firmly behind the war effort.As in all the prior chapters, the atrocities of the Axis enemy, this time Japan, were well documented and horrifyingly portrayed. The fall of Nanking for example, resulted in the deaths of forty thousand victims, most of them non-combat men, women and children on whom the Japanese took out their rage and hostility. Unlike watching a war movie, the unimaginable terror that humans are capable of inflicting on each other is on display here in all it's unflinching reality.

Battle of China, The (1944) *** (out of 4) WW2 documentary from Frank Capra tells the history of China and their wars as well as how they got involved in WW2 and what they had to do to defend themselves. As with Capra's other WW2 docs, this one here contains some great battle footage, which is pretty remarkable to see. I also find it incredibly interesting at how Capra set these films up so that the viewer gets to know every little detail of how the war was fought. Sensitive viewers might want to stay clear because this is a pretty damn violent film that shows several people being executed by the Nazis and there's also some graphic footage of some babies that were executed.

Part 6 in a series of 7 films created as a briefing for soldiers but also released for public viewing, these films by Frank Capra for the War Department are simultaneously good propaganda and good history, well told. Footage is from the field, and the historical facts behind the narration are largely accurate and informative, if "embellished". The embellishment is what makes it propaganda, yet it does not diminish the facts presented. I'm very impressed that an informed and largely accurate reading of history could be presented in a way that makes an emotional and moral point about the justness of fighting fascism, deliberate mass murder of civilians and tyranny. (And no, that fight does not justify later bombings of Dresden or Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)Effective and well done, this is influential film-making during a time of chaos, confusion and disarray. In hindsight we can see that things turned out well for our side, yet at the time these films were made victory against world fascism was definitely not a certainty. These films helped to lay a moral foundation for the open-ended challenges faced then. They also provided a historical context and education about world events leading up to American involvement in the war that most soldiers probably did not possess. Pearl Harbor was correctly presented as a midpoint in Japan's war of aggression, not the beginning of it. This film was a "morning wake up" historical briefing for the sleeping giant's fighters.