WORLD AT WAR, THE, PART 6: BANZA! (TV)
Summary
Part six in this twenty-six-part documentary series chronicling the history of World War II. This episode covers the following people and topics: the post-World War I economic depression in Japan; Tomohiko Ushiba, the prime minister's private secretary, on the Japanese depression; Marquis Kido, Emperor Hirohito's chief adviser, on ultra-nationalist groups in the Japanese Army; Lewis Bush on the role of the Japanese Army in the 1930s; the role of Emperor Hirohito as a figurehead for the army; the Japanese Army seizes control of Manchuria in 1931 and the Japanese delegation exits the League of Nations; Japan invades China in July 1937 and bombs Peking and Shanghai; Russia and Japan battle on the Manchurian border in the summer of 1938; Bush talks of the ills of living in Japan if one is a non-German Westerner; Ian Mutsu talks about military influence on everyday life in Japan; Japanese students play war games and learn martial arts; Japanese troops arrive in French Indochina after the fall of France; Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka signs a tripartite pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940, obliging support against the U.S.; Matsuoka signs a Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact with Soviet strongman Joseph Stalin on April 13, 1941; Toshikazu Kase, Matsuoka's private secretary, recalls the army's desire for war against Russia; the U.S. embargoes oil when Japan occupies all of French Indochina in the summer of 1941; the government of Gen. Hideki Tojo begins in the summer of 1941 and sends envoys to the U.S.; Minoru Genda, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, remarks on the problems involved; attack leader Mitsuo Fuchida, pilot Masatake Okumiya, and spy Takeo Yoshikawa recall their roles in the Pearl Harbor attack; Japanese and American footage of the attack is discussed; Japan achieves many successes in the Pacific, bombs Singapore on December 7, 1941, and battles the British in Malaya (December 1941-February 1942); and British Gen. Arthur Percival surrenders to Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita on February 15, 1942. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Thames (United Kingdom)
- DATE: December 5, 1973
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color and B&W
- CATALOG ID: T82:0198
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: China - History - 1937-1945; Great Britain - Officials - Talk/Interviews; International Collection - United Kingdom; Japan - Foreign relations - China; Japan - Foreign relations - U S; Japan - Foreign relations - U S S R; Japan - Officials - Talk/Interviews; Pearl Harbor, Attack on, 1941; Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact, 1941; Thames Collection; U S - Officials - Talk/Interviews; War, Declaration of; World War II - 1940; World War II - 1941; World War II - 1942
- SERIES RUN: Thames (United Kingdom) - TV series, 1973-1974
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jeremy Isaacs … Producer
- Peter Batty … Producer, Writer
- Noble Frankland … Production (Misc.), Historical Adviser
- Laurence Olivier … Narrator
- Lewis Bush
- Mitsuo Fuchida
- Minoru Genda
- Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
- Toshikazu Kase
- Marquis Kido
- Yosuke Matsuoka
- Ian Mutsu
- Masatake Okumiya
- Arthur Percival
- Joseph Stalin
- Hideki Tojo
- Tomohiko Ushiba
- Tomoyuki Yamashita
- Takeo Yoshikawa