(06) Why We Fight: "Prelude to War" (ca. 1943) 6/6

Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II.
World War II is introduced in black and white terms, with Henry Wallace's quote "This is a fight between a free world and a slave world" pictorialized with the "free world" of the Allies as a brightly-illuminated planet and the "slave world" of the Axis Powers as a planet deep in shadow.
It examines the differences between democratic and fascist states, using footage from Axis propaganda films including Triumph of the Will, but with different narration designed to support the Allied cause.
It is mentioned that after the Nazis smashed opposing political parties and labor unions, they turned their attention to persecution of Christians - in one scene a stained glass window is shattered by a brick to reveal a "Heil Hitler!" poster behind


The Axis aim of total world conquest, as shown in Prelude to War.
The Axis is depicted as seeking total world conquest. An animated map first shows Mussolini's ambition to re-create the Roman Empire, complete with the Mediterranean as "Our (the Italians') Sea", then Japan's ambition - described in the Tanaka Memorial (Its authenticity is still a matter of dispute) - to conquer Manchuria, China, Indochina, Siam, Burma, the East Indies, India, Australia, New Zealand and Russia east of Lake Baikal, before moving east to crush the United States. The Nazis are shown as first claiming Europe, then moving east through Iraq and Iran into India, then south to conquer Africa. Once this is accomplished, the Nazis would cross the Atlantic Ocean from Dakar to Brazil - meeting up with the Japanese who have crossed the South Pacific. Simultaneously, the Nazis would cross the North Atlantic Ocean from Scandinavia into Canada, meeting the Japanese forces (pejoratively referred to as Germany's "buck-toothed pals") crossing from Siberia. The combined Axis armies then overrun the United States.
Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy is shown making a speech which is deliberately mistranslated (as in other US World War II propaganda) as "When war comes between Japan and the United States, I shall not be content to merely occupying Guam, the Philippines, Hawaii, and San Francisco. I look forward to dictating the peace to the United States in the White House at Washington." - this is followed by a scene showing the "conquering Jap army" marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, as the narration alludes to Japanese atrocities in Nanking, Hong Kong and Manila.
The film exposes the mendacity of Axis claims that they need living space due to their overpopulation, by showing that they deliberately encouraged a high birth rate in order to increase their military manpower. It also points out that while they claimed to lack raw materials, they were able to build enormous war machines. The Nazi Wehrmacht is mentioned to have "30 Panzer divisions, 70 motorized divisions and 140 infantry divisions".
The film notably takes the position that the war started on September 18, 1931 with Japan's invasion of Manchuria, which is covered towards the end of the film along with Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. The animation showing a Japanese dagger plunging into Manchuria is re-used in The Battle of Russia, The Battle of China and War Comes To America.
Prelude to War won the 1942 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Category:

Education

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• America
• fascist
• Washington
• D.C.

[Ianpbx]

Notice that the narrator refers to "the free people of Russia." A few years later they were the dreaded enemy who enslaved their ppopulation within an empire. It shows how our rulers can change their language as quickly as they change sides and take the masses with them thanks to the language of their propaganda.

[DrAlbino]

i hope you can realise that this is an propaganda movie, it was even considered exactly that at the time.

perhaps it really means propaganda does work wonders on some.

[fattoler]

@CrankCase08 Orly?

[CrankCase08]

@fattoler I've watched it plenty of times. How is that relevant?

[fattoler]

@CrankCase08 You really need to watch "I'm Alright Jack"

[GCarty80]

@CrankCase08

In addition, electricity privatization (combined with the high interest rates of the time) caused a stampede into gas power (quick to build but expensive to run) at the expense of nuclear power (slower to build, but cheaper to run). Not as bad as Germany's Gerhard Schroeder though, who decided to do away with nuclear energy in Germany, and was rewarded for his treason with a lavishly-paid job at Russian-government-owned Gazprom.

[CrankCase08]

@DracoMalfoy87 "Britain will NEVER be respected as a nation under Socialism". That depends what you refer to as socialism. If you think Obama, Clinton & co are socialists, you, like many Americans of the Tea Party tendency, have no idea what socialism is.

Britain under Churchill and Thatcher was respected? It's how the people live that's the important thing, not how rotten politicians, greedy filthy rich fananciers, and good for nothing journalists perceive it. You are so deluded.

[CrankCase08]

@DracoMalfoy87 Of course you prefer the American system, you clear ly have plenty of money with which to fund your international travel and private health insurance. You really need to make yourself aware that between 2007-9 approx 77 million US citizens were unable to afford such private healthcare. There's no freedom for them. Or maybe you prefer to ignore such inconvenient facts, because you're doing alright, and that's all that counts.

[CrankCase08]

@DracoMalfoy87 I was referring to Churchill's spell as PM 1951-55. During the post-war Labour government he opposed the dismantling of the empire, and was particularly opposed to giving independance to India. Running the country during the war would have been relatively easy due to the imposition of a police state.

Thatcher brought social desolation and division to Britain.Contrary to your prejudiced ignorance, public services worked better than the profit-motivated privatised ones.

[DracoMalfoy87]

Britain will NEVER be respected as a nation under Socialism. The British Empire was respected, Britain was respected under Churchill and Thatcher, but it is NOT very respected today, for the sole reason of Socialism. In the long run, Americans will NEVER accept Socialism

[DracoMalfoy87]

No, I'm not a prime example of why Americans are hated, but you are a prime example of why Europe is Socialist. I agree with you on Americans being fat; it is a very bad problem, but your personal accusations are totally untrue. I am in good shape; I am not fat at all. I try to eat organic food. I do not care for pop culture celebrities, and I have been to England, Scotland, Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, and I think the American system is better than most or all in Europe.

[DracoMalfoy87]

Of course Britain was a wilderness under Churchill. Britain was under attack. The other prime ministers has far worse economic policies. Thatcher brought respect back to Britain, and I'm sure anything "public" wasn't functioning anyway