This film, from the natural archives, contains graphic scenes of war some viewers may find disturbing. President roosevelt yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of japan. The United States was at peace with that nation, and at the solicitation of japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the pacific. Indeed, one hour after, japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of oahu, the japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent american message. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive, extending throughout the pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us god. [applause] president roosevelt i ask that the congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly on sundayjapan a state of war1 has existed between the United States and the japanese empire. [applause] the arms embargo is far too great a security to American Peace to permit its surrender without a lastditch fight. You people who oppose war and dictatorship, do not be dismayed, because the warmongers and interventionisms control most of the avenues of propaganda. At this critical moment in the worlds history, when the democracies of europe are facing the test of life or death, all americans are of one mind. We want to assist the democracies in every way we can with materials and supplies. England is the last and only barrier that we, the United States, end total war. Our aid must not come too late. Therefore, we must give president roosevelt power to the to set in motion and industrial blitzkrieg that will make it possible for england to blast hitlerism from the face of the earth. It was fully and freely embraced. Men were stamped interventionists and isolationists, and the debate grew bitter. Earnest young man visited the white house, as the peaceful had, and not in the hands that wanted no peace, who worshiped war. Other earnest young men picketed the picketers. These stunts mushroomed into being. Into this free debate trooped the agents of the aggressors, for they, too, were permitted to speak in our democracy. They wore hitlers uniforms, but they wrapped themselves in the american flag. They preached the doctrine of racial and class hatred, for hitler had said america could be conquered from within. And fall as an overripe plum to the nazi master race. The jewish [indiscernible] we let them speak when occasionally a lone outrage descender wanted to wear his opposition, we provided police to preserve order. This was Madison Square garden in new york city, and not berlin, nor nuremberg. Later this speaker was arrested, it was because he had filched money from his deluded followers. He was sent to sing sing to brood upon the strange ways of democracy. Another debate was at progress. Labor and management resorted to strikes and lockout to settle differences which at times surged into violence. True, we had taken giant steps along the road to affiliation, but scenes such as these convinced the actors have they had nothing to fear from americans. They knew our industrial capacity was great. We could never use it to the full, they said. Our plans were there, but they were made idle. America was at war. It had been at war, although few americans realized it, for more than 10 years. Ever since september 18, 1931, when japan clawed manchuria out of the body of china. While hitler was still brawling in the streets of munich, japan had already begun weaving the pattern of aggression. It started with an incident. A japanese train in the south Manchurian Railway had been dynamited. Promptly, japanese battalions invaded muckton. This was not mechanized warfare. By later standards, this war was primitive, small, trivial the japanese cabinet officially labeled it, when china protested to the league of nations. 12 japanese planes bombed the a chinese city. Trivial. The league branded japan an aggressor, and japan resigned, deeply hurt. Therefore, said japan, the leagues action was illegal. It was not unanimous. The secretary of state stinson was confirmed we had signed the pact of paris, which guaranteed chinas territorial integrity. We sent an observer to the league. Japan protested, finally consented. The league investigated. A, japaneseal nomur forces attacked 15 miles from a whohai, the same nomur talk to peace in washington while his colleagues in tokyo prepared for war. Japan marched into shanghai, troops, columnists, propaganda, actually anticipating methods used in the conquest of europe. Japan march out of shanghai at the insistence of the lead. She signed a truce with china on may 4, 1932. Four months later, japan moved firmly into mongolia, sent out colonizers to follow the army into the conquered territory, and the public state of manchugo was in peril. The league branded japan an aggressor, and japan resigned, deeply hurt. Japan moved further into china, pausing only for breath, japan inflated the muckton incident into the china incident. It was not war, the japanese said. 400 million chinese were caught up in this incident. China was looted and shelled and put to the torch. China was bombed in this incident. Narrator Chinese Forces united, under generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and were pressed back , by the invaders. China moved their armies and her meager War Industries far into the interior. The chinese fought on, not so much with weapons, as with space and time. Few americans new japan. To us, it was the land of fuji, of cherry trees, of exquisite gardens, geisha girls, picturesque peasants. We had opened japan to the western world. They had bought our machines, copied our architecture, our clothes, our popular music, and had even adopted our games, although they marched to the baseball diamond as men marching to war. [speaking japanese] narrator and they said they played ball to build their bodies for war. Americans knew little of that might of japan. Japan we thought was only an imitator. True, they had a navy, makeshift we said, and the japanese carefully fostered the legend their men couldnt fly their imitation planes. And yet, imitation or not, the weapons of war were manned. And the warriors of japan, still breathing the samurai in the era of machines adopted western , methods of warfare, as they had adopted western they had adopted western clothes and architecture and music. And the japanese warriors clung to the conflict of asia, and then to the world. And their emperor invoked the blessings of the divine upon this dream. Narrator italy, too, had dreams of empire. So italy, too, created an incident. Having achieved unity within by virtue of the club, castor oil in the concentration camp, mussolini was ready. [speaking italian] narrator they had the foremost air force in europe. This emperor rallied his christman, armed only with rifles,nd ancient tanks, guns, trained armies and planes. But it continued for a little less than two years. Theemperor appeared before league and pleaded the protection of the great powers. The league applied sanctions, which were not completely enforced. Two years after it had begun, the war was over. Italy had joined japan in the partnership of aggression. [speaking italian. ] narrator on march 13, 1938, hitler marched into austria. The trinity of aggression was complete. Four years hitler had planned and plotted. Executedian nazis had this chancellor for refusing to play the role of puppet. In advance of the treaty, established compulsory military service, brought its secret army out into the open, began converting its huge industrial plants for work war, had redone the zones. Germany had practically wiped out the defeat of 1918. So hitler marched into austria. His conquest was bloodless. It was not entirely bloodless. German and Italian Forces had been fighting in spain. General franco had revolted against the republican government. He invited and received german and italian aid. The dulyelected government received some russian aid. The democracies involved a formula of nonintervention. There was opportunity for a dress rehearsal for a fullscale war. An excellent chance to test new weapons and tactics. The spaniards were the guinea pigs. Men, women, and children. It was a long war, ended finally by hunger. Narrator hitler was not content with austria. At munich, he had said his theory of race and blood demanded the incorporation of all germanspeaking peoples into the reich. They were those in england and france and the United States who did not think this a reasonable demand. Taylor called upon hitler called upon czechoslovakia to surrender this area. Was area of czechoslovakia heavily populated by germans. France and england were in a defensive pact. Great britain was linked with france. So hitler, Prime Minister chamberlain of great britain, mussolini, the premier of france, met in munich, and because the democracies of europe were hungry for peace, removed the thorn from hitlers side, the check army and the little [indiscernible] sit breezeis a sigh of relief. Hitler rose, his people were jubilant. They wanted peace. Hitler heckler rolled into the streets. Here was the miracle man, they said. A man who conquered with words. This was a new kind of war, a delightful war. Bands and flowers and parades. A smiling war. A lovely war, not a shot fired, womanman killed, nor a nor a child. War was a holiday. Narrator hitler told his people he was content. He wanted no more territory. He guaranteed the integrity of the mutilated czechoslovakia republic. Thereupon he caused to rest, then marched into prague. The republic was destroyed. The democracies had lost a valuable ally. Italys reward was albania, again bloodless. Slight resistance. Now europe realized the hunger of the aggressors could not be appeased. On april 14, 1939, president roosevelt appealed to hitler and mussolini for a 10 year guarantee at peace. And hitler mocked, as he called the role of his future victims. [speaking german] narrator the reichstadt roared. Hitler had signed a treaty of friendship with poland. He had given poland a slice of czech territory, and now it was polands turn to ascend the sacrificial altar. The democracy had pledged themselves to come to the aid of poland, and then hitler executed what seemed at the time a. Assive political scope having come to power as the savior of germany from communism, having gained support in certain circles of the democracy of the slayer of the red dragon, having built his insider his entire system on the communist crusade, hitler sent his foreign minister to moscow. His policy of collective security had been scrapped at munich. Now russia and germany signed a treaty of friendship. Hitlers propaganda machines mmed,d, for even hu for men and women must be ready for war. Great britain stood firm. Hitler didnt declare war. On september 1, 1939, he struck without warning. Which is the way of the aggressor. You will soon see hitlers own photographic record of the blitz in poland. The formula is simple enough. Choose your victims, an army first, still living in the past. Few planes, fewer tanks, outmoded guns, and outmoded tactics. Choose an army relying upon courage rather than machines. Narrator then mass your bombers, load with your biggest bombs. [airplane drone] narrator strike. Strike without warning. Destroy his inadequate air force on the ground. Blast those who escape out of the air. Narrator strike again with your bombers, wave after wave, again and again. [airplane drone] narrator strike at the railroads, for then the victim cannot mobilize. It cannot move men and supplies. Its armies are isolated. [airplane and bombing sounds] narrator strike on the seas. Strike on land with tanks against forces, giant guns against sabres and rifles. Choose your time carefully, making sure the weather favors your machines. Strike at a city so that civilians will take to the roads, hampering the army, so that women and children will be killed in the streets or in hastilycontrived shelters. Narrator strike again. Repeat the dose day after day. And then add a drop of treachery in the form of columnists. This was warsaw. Repeat for 18 days. Nazi footprint footprint cuts to the army to krakow. From east prussia another army moves on war saw. Encircle, bomb. Warsaw surrenders. Now over the roofs of cities to photograph your handiwork. Narrator and on the ground, let master race assemble the first of its slave population, a stunned and shocked and hungry people, whose sufferings do not end with the armistice nor with their resistance. Narrator now gloat. Narrator the winter of 1939 and 1940 was described by amateur statesman and senator as the phony war. Cruise ships were sunk in the battle of the atlantic, and men died in the phony war, but there were no land battles. France was waiting behind its marginal line, that vast underground fortress deemed impregnable by its military experts. A strategy relied on starving the reich into submission. Hitlers armies would collapse for lack of fuel and food and raw materials. Spring shattered this comfortable illusion. Norway and denmark had staked their survival upon the strictist interpretation of neutrality to escape the war. Their sympathies were with the allies, but took extraordinary precautions to avoid offending hitler. So on april 9, hitler invaded denmark and norway. Denmark was powerless to resist and didnt. Norway was stunned by an avalanche of force and treachery. Invaders were hidden in merchant ships in norwegian harbors. Fifth columnists led by this major, a norwegian traitor, spread panic and confusion. On may 9, hitler invaded holland and belgium. These nations too hoped to avert war, and these nations too minded their own business and spoke softly, but hitler struck at them, again without warning, because he had decided the battle with friends had just been won by outflanking the line. He had no problem with these nations. They were merely convenient roads to france. Simultaneous the nazis smashed across hollow, belgium, and luxembourg. Holland, belgium, and luxembourg. This pictorial record you are watching was made by nazi cameramen at the request of the german propaganda minister. He showed this symphony of devastation to nations in devastation to nations in europe and south america to frighten them into surrender. You will observe that here in holland for example, not one german soldier is killed or wounded, or even suffers a fractured ankle in an avalanche of destruction. For dr. Goebel is the showman, and he values the mythical invincibility of the nazis, or that was his propaganda until britain refused to surrender to the armada, and until the russians slaughtered over a million of invincibles. [bombs] to the now familiar recipe of the blitz were added parachute troops who swarmed down upon dutch cities and airfields and further disrupted their defense. Men had discussed that most armies had experimented with this new dimension in mobile warfare, but the nazis were the first to use parachutes in force. Guns and ammunition sailed down in special parachutes and were assembled quickly on the ground. Thus the nazis could capture and destroy airfields, railroad stations, and other teaching positions. Strategic positions. Using tanks, dive bombers, big guns the nazi machines broke the , back of dutch resistance in four days. [planes and bombs] narrator towns and villages were in flames as they moved on with restless pace and flash their armies, destroying the name in the name of the new order, destroying the shops of those who had dared to regress resist. There were refugees seeking escape where there were no escapes. [plane drone] narrator this was rotterdam bombed after the the nazis said after the dutch forces surrendered. The nazis said there had been a mistake. The news had not reached the luftwaffe in time. When the not these entered this nazis enter this once prosperous city, the night skies were red. And the next morning, reconnaissance planes flew over the city as they had flown over warsaw, recording for the Propaganda Ministry another tribute to the efficacy of the luftwaffe, while rotterdam buried its dead and formal negotiations for surrender were duly completed. It took 18 days more to engulf the belgians and drive the anglofrench army into the sea. The french and british armies had moved to the aid of the belgians, but wars are not won by improvisation, and in their desire for neutrality, the belgian and dutch governments had failed to perfect joint defense with the allies for the nazis struck. Invaders rolled on. [bombings] [gunfire] narrator this was the building Cathedral City of lausanne, scarred in the First World War and started anew, and again it fell victim to the invaders. Again its inhabitants took to the roads to escape the consuming fires. Narrator the cathedrals crashed in flames. The invaders rode on. Morning found the refugees still fleeing blindly. Reputable observers said these refugees were machinegunned from the air. There is no photographic evidence of this. And this is what they fled. The nazi machine moved on, and after a days destruction paused only to sleep. Narrator this was antwerp where , the democracies had fired oil tanks as their army retreated. Brussels was spared, for it had been declared an open city, and the not these the nazis marched in eating no resistance. Belgian king leopold capitulated. Narrator the improvised allied defense collapsed. The british army was driven into the sea of dunkirk, according to plan. Dunkirk has been called the triumph of man over the machine. To challenge the dive fathers, they fought for the domination of the air over the desolate beach while Ground Forces continued a stubborn rearguard action. [gunfire, plane drone] narrator british ships, cruisers, destroyers, yachts, paddle boats, anything that could float crossed the channel and evacuated some 350,000 british and french troops back to england. For the british were determined to save their men. Narrator here in the wreckage was the story of the epic evacuation. Men walked into the sea and swam to their rescuers. They couldnt take their weapons, trucks, tanks, or guns, but men were saved to fight again. having slashed through belgium and holland, german armies fanned out across france. Treachery and confidence had bit doomed the nation that only a decade ago had been leader of europe. Now the campaign mounted in theory as france crumbled. Fury as france crumbled. [gunfire and explosions] plane drone] narrator this was rouen. Narrator paris had been evacuating its children. There was talk of defending the city street by street. This plan was abandoned. From the beginning, the french, like the british, chide to spare children the sight and sound of war, but it was hard. Narrator on june 10, four days before france fell, mussolini entered the war. He had waited until that moment to make his decision. And now the nazis entered paris. This had been the dream of the kaiser in the last war. Hitler achieved it. Narrator and the marginal line was still there. The nazis had merely outflanked it. Now they tried direct attack, and the marginal line fell. Narrator the First World War had ended officially in this railroad car, where marshall had received the delegate of the vanquished germans. Hitler commandeered the car for what he believed was the end of the second world war. The french army was no more. Hitler was master of europe. It was surrender, for although it had rescued its men from dunkirk, it had not rescued if equipment. The nazis were soon sailing against england. En,rator here, at compi victory was born. Hitler was happy. Britain alone remained hitlers sole barrier to a total victory. Nazi submarines now on the coast set out to starve the british people into submission. Nazi planes, now only a few minutes flight from the english coast, set out to bomb the british people into submission. Making fullndists, use of the radio, set out to talk the british people into submission. The voice you heard sounded [indiscernible] the blitzkrieg will be carried over the british islands with more rapidity than over poland, norway, holland, belgium, or france. Narrator Prime Minister churchill rallied his people in what he called their finest hour. Nothing but blood and sweat, toil and tears. The accepted his gift. Britain was fighting in the seven seas. The invasion was only 20 miles away, and the french fleet was no longer its ally. Nazi submarines, bombs, mines constituted a former formidable menace. Britain hung on. Now the nazi output, hitlers ace weapon, was brought. Attacked english forts so that even if they tried to escape the minds, they would face description destruction at harbor, and the lifeline would be cut at its source. They bombed railroads and factories to disrupt transportation and war production. They bombed by day, and when the Royal Air Force smashed more than 180 of the bombers out of the sky in one session, they bombed by night. The face of london changed. Historic landmarks disappeared. [bomb siren] narrator night after night, london was left a sea of fire. [flame sounds] [bomb sirens] narrator plymouth was back. Narrator carpentry. Narrator air armadas appeared over these cities through the fall and winter of 1940 and in the spring of 1941. Wreckage was cleared, and production continued. A new army was created equipped with new weapons. In the mediterranean, the british sought out the italian fleet, which refused to leave its harbors. Finally, the british had to bomb landlocked italian warships. Malta, a british stronghold, had ceaseless pounding. Drones and bombs] narrator the british suite through libya by the general succeeded in destroying the celebes empire. The british captured somaliland, 1931, the king was restored to his throne. They flashed into egypt, but whatever the future might be for the democracy in the middle east, the italian factions had lost the war in africa as well as in europe. Here our our italian prisoners captured in the first sweep as they were let off to prison camps. The name of mussolini seemed to lose its luster, and before long, he was to find himself competing with vichy for the favor of hitler. Britain still stood, and hitler, frustrated, turned east. If this were to be a long war, he would need russian oil and russian wheat. So he proclaimed himself a new anew the arch enemy of communism. Despite his earlier plea to the german people that National Socialism and communism could live sidebyside. Now he told them that he didnt mean what he said before, that but he did mean what he said before that. They said the red armies would be encircled and destroyed within six weeks, its remnants would retreat back of the urals. There the japanese could deal with them at the parter time. Proper time. Stalin ushered the russian people. They rose to repel and harry the invaders. Working with whatever tools they could seize, working against time, men and women old and young carved these huge tank tracks. Weapons were distributed to civilian guerrillas assigned to energize the back of the army, and antiaircraft guns swung into place to take care of the most advanced unit. Here was the wheat that hitler wanted, and russian men, women, and children were determined to keep it out of his hands. This time there would be no easy loot. Narrator machines as well as men helped harvest something more precious than raw materials. Narrator and their price cattle were driven east. Cattle are driven east. And when the tempo of invasion mounted, the russians did not hesitate to burn their crops and their homes so that the conquerors would find ashes as their prize. They would harvest neither food nor shelter. Factories worked day and night, for the russians knew this was the war of machines. Entire plants or moved east, complete with workers. Weapons of war poured out of the factories, and the germans as well as the rest of the world, discovered the russians had tanks to meet tanks and planes the russians retreated but not without inflicting sizable casualties. Narrator german prisoners captured seem shocked with the ruthless opposition they encountered. They found the Russian Army Still intact. German casualties mounted until the recounted in the millions. As the snows melted, hepler was was to meet new russian armies and machines. We were not sufficiently on the alert. The japanese won a series of spectacular victories in the pacific. Under douglas macarthur, filipino forces fought actions in the philippines. Manila was found even though was declared an open city. There was an impossible sense of reinforcement. [sirens] narrator General Macarthur establishes headquarters and as commanderinchief of United Nations forces in that area, prepared from the offensive that would develop inevitably. Setbacks, he had established a supply chain 6000 miles across the pacific that stretched to new zealand. Like the other democracies, we were not prepared for total war. Fortunately, under a landlease act of 1941, we had set out to become the arsenal of a free and fighting nation. Themtermined to supply whether they can afford to pay or not. We were buying time. Time to convince the industries of peace and war, time to make ships, merchant ships and warships. Time to make planes and warplanes, farmers and fighters, faster more powerful than any world to never seen. Time to make guns and a more guns, shells and more shells, tanks and more tanks. Time to gather the huge strength which was hours, to pour the great riches of americas earth into the causes of war. Oil, coal. , time to build a navy called upon fighting overseas, to convoy men and women to australia. To pretend, to the middle east, to russia. A navy that had already undertaken the guilt of Marshall Islands and bring japanese waters and have taken a heavy toll of the invading forces and had won the first battle in the coral sea. Time to expand a professional army into a modern war machine. Time to take civilians gathered in the peacetime constructions while we were still debating, to move and train them in the use of new weapons, new tactics, time to teach them the lesson europe had learned too late. That modern war could only be won by men of skill. Time to send these men to a new bermuda, iceland. Time to build an air force, the Largest Air Force in the world for our army and navy. Theere buying time to weld home front and fighting front into one for this was total war and we realized victories were born in the production line. We needed more ships, planes, tanks, guns, shells. We were not fighting alone. Nine of the panamerican nativist said diplomatic relations with the access axis. At this time, the issue is clearly drawn. There can be no peace until hitler and his monstrous parasites are readily obliterated. [applause] nations toind of the claremore upon the aggressors. Cuba, costa rica, the dominican republic, el salvador, guatemala, haiti, honduras, nicaragua and panama. Mexico joined these nations in june 1942. We were not fighting alone. Even in the conquest countries, the will to fight survived. Belgians, yugoslavias, britains, czechoslovakias, filipinos. Free frenchman, they all fought with us in the battlefield. Australians, new zealanders, south africans, canadians. We were not fighting alone. In this award of the people seeking a World Without war for their children. Britain, growing steadily stronger in its third year of four sweeping the skies of europe, piercing the enemy with , commending huge armadas and bombers over german promise woulds never be attacked. Russia fighting with an unparalleled tenacity, drawing upon inexhaustible reserves, asking no mercy and offering them. China, knowing the patience of the nation civilization surmounting handicaps the wouldve destroyed other nations, fighting on. The people of the United States and angry people whose resources were the envy of the world, offering these without fear. Fighting in the factories in the foxholes. Fighting in the jungles for weeks. Fighting on all of the oceans. Fighting for survival. Fighting a war which would be hard and might be long, but which they would win. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer you are watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Cspanus on twitter at history for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Sunday on American History tv, historian george nash talks about who Herbert Hoover to military and efforts are in world war i and world war ii. Heres a preview. One object of special solicitude was young people. It was our task and the belgians, hoover wrote later, to maintain the laughter of the children, not to try away their tears. The challenge was impressively met. Belgiums917, 3 4 of children were receiving daily with teams established for that purpose. As if all of this burn on and hoovershe early 1915, organization was permitted to extend its lifesaving operations to more than 2 million french civilians living behind the german lines on the western front. Between 1914 and the cessation of its work in the summer of 1919, the crpiv delivered nearl5 Million Metric Tons of supplies to more than 9 million civilians inside belgium and german occupied or the northern france. Nearlyg so, it expended 1 billion, the equivalent of more than 12 billion today. In the course of these exertions, hoover working voluntarily and without pay, became an international hero, the embodiment of a new force in global politics. American benevolence in the form of humanitarian and eight programs. Announcer watch the entire program with george nash at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern time sunday. In 1920, sacco and vanzetti to italian in arcos were charged with robbery and murder in massachusetts. They were soon found guilty to a lack of supporting evidence and executed in 1927. Next, law professor brad snyder discusses the controversy surrounding the saccovanzetti case at an event to the Supreme Court chamber posted by the Supreme Court historical society. This is about 45 minutes. Mr. Snyder let me say that we are very honored tonight and grateful to our host Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg
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