 Good afternoon. Welcome to the William G. McGowan Theater and the National Archives flagship building in Washington, D.C., which sits on the ancestral lands of the Akhastan people. And a special welcome to those watching on the National Archives YouTube channel. I'm Tom Nastic, a public programs producer, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's film screening in Commemoration of Veterans Day. And to those veterans in person in the theater or watching on YouTube, thank you for your service. Before we begin, I'd like to tell you about two programs coming up soon on our YouTube channel. Tomorrow, November 10th at 11 a.m., we'll continue our Veterans Day Commemoration with the next in our series of Young Learners programs as we present a book talk, Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, a Navajo Code Talker story with author Joseph Brucek. And on Thursday, November 15th at 1 p.m., we will partner with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to present a panel discussion, critical conversations, separation of powers, and the State of American Democracy, moderated by William Howell, the Sidney Stein Professor in American Politics at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. This program is presented in conjunction with the Crystal Bridges exhibit, We the People, The Radical Notion of Democracy. To find out about our programs and exhibits, you can visit us online at www.archives.gov. Today we will screen two films from the vast motion picture holdings of the National Archives, both created by acclaimed Hollywood directors who, during the Second World War, joined the U.S. Armed Services to make films that promoted the war effort and educated servicemen and women. First up will be The Battle of Midway, released in 1942 by the U.S. Navy, directed by John Ford, one of the most prolific Hollywood directors, perhaps best known for his films, How Green Was My Valley, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Searchers. The film, shot in color, has Ford's signature all over it, from the use of music like Red River Valley, that was featured so prominently in The Grapes of Wrath, to the use of his stock company of actors, including Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell, providing voiceover narration. The film was ultimately distributed by 20th Century Fox, and was one of the four winners of the inaugural 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Next will be Prelude to War, the first film of Frank Cappers, Why We Fight series commissioned by the Office of War Information. It was made to educate American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis powers during World War II, based on the idea that those in the service would fight more willingly and ably if they knew the background and the reason for their participation in the war. Prelude to War was first shown to troops in October 1942, and by the following spring, it had been seen by millions of soldiers at home and abroad. President Roosevelt was greatly impressed by the film, and strongly urged that it be released to the general public, which it was. Prelude to War won the Academy Award as Best Documentary in 1943. So thank you for coming and viewing, and I hope you enjoy the films. Council of War is held. In his sister, Patricia, she was about as pretty as they come. I'll say so. We're junior tinny. And the clouds. The Japs attack. Jips stop the Jap fleet. Hapis sprung. Planes roared from the decks of our carriers. Army bombers, Marines. Thundered destruction over a 300-mile battle area. Inforces were hit and hit and hit again. Men and women of America, here come your neighbor's sons, home from the day's work. You want to meet them. There's Jimmy Thatch, seven meatballs on his plane. How many more today, skipper? Back at Midway. Ojo swore he'd liberate the natives. They see just as free as they ever were. Battle of Midway is over. Our front yard is safe, but a big job is still to be done. Day after day, our patrol planes search for survivors. Every tiny coral reef. Every distant mile of sea. Search for men who fought to the last round of ammunition and flew to the last drop of gas, and then crashed into the sea. Eight days. Nine days. Ten days without food or water. His first cigarette. Oh, and that first drag sure tastes good. Eleven days. Well done, massive hues. Logan Ramsey, Frank Fessler. That's thirteen for Frank. Get those boys to the hospital. Please do quickly. Get them to clean cuts and cool sheets. Get them doctors and medicine. The nurses soft hands. Get them to the hospital. Hurry, please. There was a hospital. Clean, orderly, a hundred beds. And on its roof, the Red Cross plainly marked. The symbol of mercy, the enemy was bound to respect. The next morning, divine services were held beside a bomb crater that had once been a chapel. At eventide, we buried our heroic dead, the last salute from their comrades and their officers. Captain Simard of the Navy. Colonel Shannon. Major Roosevelt. Causes and events leading up to our entry into the war. Well, what are the causes? Why are we Americans on the march? Is it because of... Pearl Harbor? Is that why we are fighting? Or is it because of... Britain? France? China? Czechoslovakia? Norway? Poland? Greece? Belgium? Albania? Yugoslavia? Or Russia? Honor your king! Just what was it made us change our way of living overnight? What turned our resources, our machines? Our whole nation into one vast arsenal. Producing more and more weapons of war instead of the old materials of peace. What put us into uniform ready to engage the enemy on every continent and every ocean? What are these two worlds of which Mr. Wallace spoke? The free and the slave. Let's take the free world first. Our world. How did it become free only through a long and unceasing struggle inspired by men of vision? Moses. Confucius. Christ. All believe that in the sight of God all men were created equal. And from that they developed a spirit among men and nations which is best expressed in our own declaration of freedom. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. It is the cornerstone upon which our nation was built and the ideal of all the great liberators. Washington. Jefferson. Garibaldi. Lafayette. Koshuska. Bolivar. Lincoln. Lighthouses. Lighting up a dark and foggy world. That government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth. Fighting. Living. Dying. For what? For freedom. That for which men have fought since time began to be free. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of change and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take but as for me give me liberty or give me death. But what of this other world? Here men insisted that progress lay in killing freedom. Here they were putting out the lighthouses. One by one. Here the march of history was reversing itself. In Italy it began when an ambitious rabble rouser set his followers marching on Rome. The country like every other country after the last war was torn by political unrest, hard times, unemployment. Two courses were available to the Italian people. They could solve their problems in a free democratic way or they could let someone else do the solving for them. They made the tragic mistake of choosing the second course. They put their trust and faith in this one man. They believed he represented them. Actually he planned to betray them for the selfish interests of himself and the group back of him. Just as he had earlier betrayed those who first supported him. In Germany another and even more forceful demigod set his followers marching from the Munich beer hall. He too had the sinister opportunity to take advantage of post-war chaos. But he also had certain distinctive German characteristics to play on. To start with the Germans have an inborn national love for experimentation and harsh discipline. He could give them that. The German army and through them the people had never acknowledged German defeat in the last war and were anxious for revenge. That too he promised them. The wealthy and powerful industrialists were fearful of losing any of their wealth and power and were ready to back anyone who would retain it for them. He promised to take care of them too. This man cunningly played all these ends against the middle and ruthlessly set out to murder the new born German Republic. In Japan you expect things to be done a little differently. They were. Here not one man but a gang disguised their little schemes as the will of the emperor. And to the Japanese people the emperor is gone. Taking advantage of their fanatical worship of the god emperor it was no great trick to take away what little freedom they had ever known. Yes in these lands the people surrendered their liberties and threw away their human dignity. They gave up their rights as individual human beings. And became a part of a mass. A human herd. Although these countries were far apart and different in custom and in language the same poison made them much alike. Each got a new uniform. In Italy the new bosses wore black shirts. In Germany the shirts were brown. In Japan they hid behind the uniform of the army. But really they belonged to a sinister secret society. Their symbol was a black dragon. The other fellows had to have a symbol too. Germany a swastika. In Italy the old Roman symbol of the fasciners. In Germany they called the new order National Socialism or Nazism. In Italy they had a shorter word. Fascism. In Japan they had lots of names for it. The new era of enlightenment. The new order in Asia. They called prosperity sphere. But no matter how you slice it it was just plain old fashioned militaristic imperialism. The Japs would get the prosperity and the others would get the crow. They say trouble always comes in threes. Take a good close look at this trio. Remember these faces. Remember them well. If you ever meet them, don't hesitate. Stop thinking and follow me, I will make you masters of the world. And the people answered, Stop thinking and believe in me, and I will restore the glory that was wrong. And the people answered, Stop thinking and follow your god-emperor, cried the Japanese warlords. And Japan will rule the world. And the people answered, Bonzai! Bonzai! Each system was alike and the constitutional law making bodies gave up their power. The Reichstag in Berlin. The House of Deputies in Rome. The Diet in Tokyo. And these elected representatives became collections of stooges, rubber stamp organizations. Z! Z! Starting on cue the words of the leaders. Each system did away with free speech and free assembly. Each system did away with a free press and substituted a press controlled by the party. Through their ministries of propaganda, each took complete control of the theater, the movies, the radio. Every cultural activity and every channel of information was controlled by the most important members of the party. Each did away with free courts and trial by jury and substituted courts and judges run by the party. Each abolished labor unions and the rights of bargaining for wages. And under the pretext of patriotism established a system of forced labor. Each enforced its decrees by an army of secret police who held the power of life and death over every individual. And for the few who still believed in freedom and said so, there was a ready answer. The greatest intellect in the world can be silenced with this. That is an exact translation of the words these Blackshirts cheer so lustily. Whenever I hear anyone mention the word culture, the first thing I do is reach for my gun. Yes, they had the answer. The Blackjack. And the gun. In Italy, they did it differently. While in Japan, to their names can be added those of hundreds and thousands of others who stood in the way of the new order. Finally, there is only one obstacle left. The word of God and the word of furors cannot be reconciled. Then God must go! I am absolutely clear in my own mind and I think I can speak for the furor as well that both the Catholic and Protestant churches must vanish from the life of our people. Thus spoke Dr. Alfred Rosenberg. And if you have any doubt that he spoke for his furor, here's what happened. Thousands of other men of God, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, were persecuted, arrested, confined in concentration camps. Our furor is the intermediary between his people and the throne of God. Everything the furor utters is religion in the highest sense. It is only on one or two exceptional points that Christ and Hitler stand for. Hitler is far too big a man to be compared with one so petty. Every day in all German classrooms, Yes, take children from the faith of their fathers and teach them the state as the only church. And the head of the state is the voice of God. That was the way of life, or better, the way of death, in that other world. Now what of our world? The democratic world. What did we want? What did we do about it? First of all, we wanted peace and security. And to prove our sincerity, in 1921, we initiated the Washington Disarmament Conference. This resulted in two vitally important treaties. One to reduce the size of the British, Japanese, French, Italian and American fleets. And the other, the Nine Power Treaty which guaranteed the integrity of China, and incidentally, one of the powers signing this was Japan. Later on in 1929, we signed the Kellogg-Bien Pact which was supposed to abolish war as a means of settling international disputes. This pact was signed by 47 nations, including Germany and Japan. President, I have the honor of handing you the London Naval Treaty. Faithful to our treaty obligations, we scrapped more than 60% of our naval tonnage. And our army was reduced to a standing force of 136,000 men, smaller than that maintained by the middle state of Romania. We let our hopes for peace become so strong that they grew into a determination not to fight unless directly attacked. We let ourselves be influenced by those who said that we could find security through isolation. The confusion in our way of thinking is apparent in the slice of public opinion as it appeared in Pathé News in 1939. Another war not for me. This time America should keep out and I know I will. If war breaks out in Europe, I think that this country should heed the advice of its first president and avoid all foreign entanglements. I have the slightest idea of your opinion and the slightest idea of European affairs. In the events of war in Europe, I think we should stay out of it entirely. And all our efforts should be made to keep out of the fight. But you have to fight our own battles. They mean nothing to us. We should mind our own business. By all means, no. Yes, fight. No. No. Yes. If my country calls yes. No. We simply did not want to understand that our individual and national problems were always will be dependent upon the problems of the whole world. And we had individual and national problems to worry about. Plenty of them. Just as Germany, Italy and Japan had. But we faced them in a democratic way. We passed laws to give working men a chance to improve their lot. We established an insurance program for those without jobs. We began to give old folks protection against want and hunger. We organized the CCC to provide our young men with healthy and useful employment. A federal works program came into being and changed the face of our nation with new loans, bridges, schools. We built great new dams which brought the miracle of electricity to millions of our people. These were some of our accomplishments. But there were others not so creditable. We turned our backs on the League of Nations. We passed the tariff act to set a higher wall of isolation around us. We encouraged lawlessness with the farce of prohibition. But in spite of these mistakes we never had a thought of losing our free institutions. John Q. Publix still ran the country. He had his choice of voting for Dewey, Wilkie, Roosevelt or anybody else. In Germany they had the choice of voting for Hitler, Hitler or Hitler. Over here John Q. still read what he pleased. And although he heard of books being burned in other countries he would have laughed if anyone had told him his books would ever be burned. And on Sunday if he felt like it John Q. went to any church he pleased. Most of all he got a kick out of seeing his kids go up. The average American was quite unconscious of the fact that some people had this in mind for the little John Q's. While their children were being trained to kill John Q's kids were giving their pennies to help them have life. And when we saw these men in the newsreels quite often we laughed. To us they looked like characters in a musical comedy. But they weren't comic. They weren't funny. They were deadly serious. They were out for world conquest. And what made it doubly serious was that there were 70 million Japanese 45 million Italians and 80 million Germans all hopped up with the same idea. Their leaders told them that there were Superman. Perenfolk, the Nazis called it. The master race destined to rule all of the peoples on earth. Take a good look at these humorless men. These were to be the rulers of the ruling race. Obey us blindly and you will attain your rightful place in the world. All the people will be your slaves. That's what they promised them. That Americans, Chinese, Russian South Americans, all free peoples would work for them and make them rich. And how they ate it up. We shall restore the glory that was wrong. Today we rule Germany. Tomorrow the world. The Pacific is ours. It was inevitable that these countries should gang up on us. The little fellow is our pal Kurosu who smiled his way into our hearts in December 1941. Here he and his friends are busy carving up the world in advance staking out their claims. Take a good look at these claims. Here was the Italy that Mussolini took over in 1922. And almost his first act was to tell the Italians the rightful owners of Corsica, Nice, Savoia, Albania, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and a land corridor linking it with Libya. Later on he had an even bigger dream. The old Roman Empire as it existed nearly 2,000 years ago. To dominate all the lands adjoining the Mediterranean. Mare Nostra, our sea they called it just as the ancient Romans did. As for the Japanese, they had some ambitions too. By 1920 they had grabbed off Bormosa, Korea, and the southern half of the island of Sakalin. Then Baron Gishi Tanaka, the Prime Minister, carefully set down Japanese aims in a document called the Tanaka Memorial. It was presented to the Emperor July 25, 1927. Here was their dream. Manchuria for all materials. China for manpower. Then a triumphant march through Indochina, Siam, Burma, India, the East Indies, and on through Australia and New Zealand. And in the north all they claimed was that part of Russia east of Lake Baikal. That was to be the new order in Asia. Then the Japs would move eastward to crush the United States and really start their co-prosperity sphere. Now take a look at the bike the Nazis reserved for themselves. Here's the Germany Hitler walked into. And here's what he wanted. First Europe under his complete political or economic control, leaving New Selene a share of the loot if he behaved himself. Then the drive to the east through the rich oil lands of Iran and Iraq into India. Another push south through Africa. Then from Dakar jump off to meet the honorary area who were to move in on South America through the Pacific. At the same time start across from the Scandinavian countries to hook up with his buck tooth pals coming over from Siberia to join in the conquest of the United States. There it is, gents. All they left us was Shangri-La and they'd claim that too if they knew where it was. And did they think they had a chance? Listen. When war comes between Japan and the United States I shall not be content merely to occupy Guam, the Philippines, Hawaii and San Francisco. I look forward to dictating the peace to the United States in the White House at Washington. Yamamoto wrote those words on January of 1941. Yes, the conquering Jap Army down Pennsylvania Avenue. That was the final goal. You will see what they did to the men and women of Nanking, Hong Kong and Manila. Imagine the field day they'd enjoy if they'd march through the streets of Washington. But before striking a preliminary step was necessary from Berlin from Rome from Tokyo the campaign started propaganda to confuse divide and open up their intended victim. Put them on the defensive. Scream your abuse. Shout your oppressed. The world's wrong. You're right. If you shriek it loud enough and often enough, they'll believe you. Above all, use their free press and their free speech to destroy them. Laban's wrong, they demanded. Living rule. Our lands are overcrowded. But at the same time it rises to mothers who bore the most sums. They brought together large groups of young men and young girls for human being. Read what one of their leaders wrote. Of course the children from this assembly line belong to the state to be scientifically trained for conquest. Another howl was the lack of raw material. They claimed they were the have nots and we were the haves. But out of this supposed lack of raw machines the world has ever known, these are the published figures from the German military budget. Actually between 1933 and 1939 Hitler's program of rearmament cost more than $80 billion. The Natchez alone assembled a striking force of 30 Panzer divisions, 70 motorized divisions, 140 infantry divisions plus the Luftwaffe, the world's largest air force and they had no raw materials. Think of the bread, the automobiles, the good things of life that the German, Italian, Japanese leaders might have given their people if they had spent this money for peace instead of war. You know what billions we are now spending to match their military force? No. No, these arguments were all smoke screens. When war came the democracies proved to be the have nots and our enemies the haves. And when war came where did it come? That date, September 18th, 1931, a date we should remember as well as December 7th, 1941. Or on that date in 1931 the war we are now fighting began. The place was Manchuria, the northernmost province of China. 6,000 miles from San Francisco. Manchuria the first objective in the Tanaka plan. By September 18th the Japanese who by treaty patrolled the southern Manchurian railway had secretly and illegally increased their garrisons. On the Korean-Manchurian border an entire Japanese army was assembled. Conveniently equipped for a winter campaign all they needed was an excuse. They made their own. At 10.30 that night just after the Mukden Express had passed by a section of track was dynamited causing damage to one rail and two fish blades. Japan's honor had been violated. In half an hour the Japanese railroad garrison launched a coordinated attack on the barracks of the sleeping Chinese army at Mukden. Slaughter was appalling. By midnight the conveniently placed Japanese army poured across the Korean border and the first open active aggression the invasion of Manchuria was on. In four days they had occupied the whole of southern Manchuria and shortly after the whole country. Manchuria became Manchukuo a puppet state with an obedient stooge on the throne. A weakling whom the Japanese had prepared for the job with seven years of women and song. In Washington, Henry L. Stimpson then secretary of state, now secretary of war sent out a blistering denunciation of the attack. The League of Nations sent a committee of five headed by Lord Lytton and including our own General Frank McCoy to Manchuria to investigate. In October of 1932 the committee issued its report. We found that the Japanese occupation of this large part of China was not justified on the ground of self-defense and that the new state which had been set up with the Japanese protectorate rather than a genuine case of Manchurian self-determination. Shortly after the League condemned Japan as an aggressor nation. It is a matter of common knowledge that Japan's policy is fundamentally inspired by a genuine desire to guarantee peace in the Far East and to contribute to the maintenance of peace throughout the world. Japan's policy is fundamentally inspired by a genuine desire to guarantee peace throughout Japan. However find it impossible to accept the report adopted by the assembly. In answer the Japanese delegates knowing there were no guns behind this condemnation smiled took up their briefcases marched out of the League. More than Manchuria was dead collective security was dead the green light had been given the aggressors. We in the rest of the world knew that these aggressors should be stopped and punished. But we were unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to back up that opinion. It was impossible to convince a farm boy in Iowa or a driver of a London bus or a waiter in a Paris café that he should go to war because of a mud hut in Manchuria. Yet the subsequent course of history makes it clear that that incident so many miles away is one of the main reasons that you and millions of others are in uniform today. The Japs had Manchuria phase number one of the Tanaka plan was completed. Phase number two the conquest of China. In 1932 without warning the Japs attacked the Chinese city of Shanghai. Here they met such stubborn resistance they had to pour more than 75,000 troops into the local battle before capturing the city. This resistance made them decide to shift their campaign to the north and in 1933 they added the province of Yeho to Manchuria. Yes, the Japs launched the second phase of the Tanaka plan but they had yet to finish it. A united nation stands against it. Under the inspired leadership of General Chiang Kai-shek the Chinese people fought and still fight on. Meantime what of Japan's what helpless people were they planning to bomb slaughter, drive into slavery. Hitler was not yet ready but Mussolini was. Mussolini had to be. His people were growing restless. Fascism hadn't produced the heaven on earth that he had promised them so he pulled the old trick of launching a foreign war to divert attention from troubles at home. So Mussolini beat his chest like Tarzan and looked around for a worthy foe. He found one. Ethiopia. A good country for the beginning of a glorious empire. Its army had no machine guns. Its army had no tanks. Its army did have an air force. Exactly one old aeroplane. One aeroplane against the nation which had developed the new theory of total air war. Of the blitz which would wipe out cities, destroy civilians. Man, woman and child. In October of 1935, following the Japanese example, an incident was provoked at the little settlement of Wall Wall near the border of Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. Hitler's honor had been violated. Refusing any arbitration, Mussolini moved the whole might of his army through the Suez Canal to overrun the undefended country. Ethiopia's emperor, Haile Selassie, appeared before the League of Nations. I must still fight on until my tardy allies appear and if they never come, I say to you without bitterness, the West will perish. Members of the League half heartedly stopped trading with Italy, but refused the only thing that will stop any aggressor. Force. Ethiopia was left to herself. Native leaders came to pledge their allegiance. The people of Ethiopia with their spears and bare hands faced the guns and the tanks of the invaders fighting desperately and gallantly to save their country from conquest. They fought and they died. But in the end there could be but one result might triumphed. Italy conquered Ethiopia. Many of our elected leaders warned us of danger. Without a declaration of war and without warning or justification of any kind civilians including vast numbers of women and children are being ruthlessly murdered with bombs from the air. But we were still hypnotized by the fact that two broad oceans stood between us and the rest of the world. We didn't realize that the time when months were needed to span these oceans was ended. That the steamship had cut these months to days and that now the whole earth's surface could be covered in a space of hours. Yes, we were a nation that wanted peace but we hadn't yet learned that peace for us depends on peace for all. Nobody would run the risk of war because of some mud huts and barren plains in Ethiopia any more than we would run the risk for some similar huts and plains in Manchuria. Correctly interpreting our attitude the aggressors were all assured that they could get what they wanted. Japan had started on her march of conquest. It had begun her new empire. And now the third gangster what about him? We'll take him up on our next film and show how he joined his partners and put in his bid for this is what we are fighting freedom's oldest enemy the passion of the few to rule the many. This isn't just a war this is a common man's life and death struggle against those who would put him back into slavery. And we lose everything our homes the jobs we want to go back to the books we read the very food we eat the hopes we have for our kids the kids themselves they won't be ours anymore that's what's at stake it's us or them the chips are down two worlds stand against each other one must die one must live 170 years of freedom decrees our answer