War Comes to America

1942

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This film examines world events that pulled the U.S. into World War II. It is one of seven films in the "Why We Fight" series by Academy Award-winning director Frank Capra released by the Army's Office of the Chief Signal Officer from 1942 to 1945. These served as orientation films for American troops headed overseas. The goal was to convince both the military and civilians to unite in the massive labor of defeating the Axis Powers and defending American values.

"War Comes to America" is Part Seven in the "Why We Fight" series. It tells the tale of a reluctant America drawn into battlegrounds of World War II.

Reel 1 dramatizes the early settling of the United States, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and a winter at Valley Forge. It explains the colonists' thirst for independence.

Reel 2 dramatizes later European migrations to the United States, stressing the strength brought by immigrants. It shows luxury items (cars, radios, etc.) which contribute U.S. life. It also depicts educational facilities, recreational activities (including many sport scenes), and prohibition era scenes.

In Reel 3, U.S. troops man trenches in France in 1917 during World War I. Crowds in New York City celebrate the armistice. Secretary of State Henry Stimson denounces Japan's march into Manchuria. The Bonus March on Washington, D.C., and breadlines in the 1930s are shown. Adolf Hitler watches a military display in Berlin. Haile Selassie visits the front in Ethiopia in 1935. Senator Hiram Johnson speaks for the Neutrality Act of 1935. German planes bomb cities, and street fights flare during the Spanish Civil War. Shanghai is bombed in 1937. Gallup polls find U.S. citizens isolationists.

In Reel 4, Emperor Hirohito inspects Japanese troops. Representative Andrew J. May urges arming before the House Military Affairs Committee. Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison asks the Naval Affairs Committee for funds. Maps illustrate Nazi conquests of 1939. Hitler ridicules President Roosevelt's peace proposal before the Reichstag. Warsaw is bombed. French artillery on the Maginot Line fires. President Franklin Roosevelt requests Congress to amend neutrality laws. Senators Gerald P. Nye and Elbert D. Thomas voice opposing views. The Gallup poll finds citizens united to amend the laws.

In Reel 5, Dean Acheson sums up arms embargo legislation. Maps illustrate Nazi aggression in Western Europe. Refugees clog French roads and FDR denounces Italy's entry into the war. Hitler, Hermann Goring, and Admiral Karl Doenitz, receive the French surrender; Nazis parade through Paris. Secretary of State Cordell Hull asks for hemispheric solidarity at Havana in 1940. FDR asks Congress for military funds and National Guard units, and Edward R. Murrow reports during a London air raid.

In Reel 6, Axis powers sign the Berlin Pact in 1940. Mussolini and Hitler report to their people; Charles Lindbergh pleads isolationism; Wendell Willkie asks for aid to England. The Gallup poll echoes this view; FDR speaks to Congress on lend-lease. Lend-lease material is unloaded at several ports.

In Reel 7, Stimson and Wendell Willkie ask that merchant ships be armed. Saburo Kurusu meets Secretary of State Hull in Washington, D.C. Hull sums up Japan's conditions for peace. Pearl Harbor is attacked. Draftees are inducted.

You can also watch this video in our main National Archives online catalog.

Transcript

Text: This film has been compiled from authentic newsreel, official United Nation, and captured enemy
film. Use has been made of certain motion pictures with historical backgrounds. When necessary, for
purposes of clarity, a few reenactments have been made under War Department Supervision.

Children: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Narrator: In the jungles of New Guinea, on the barren shores of the Aleutians, in the tropic heat of the
Pacific Islands, in the subzero cold of the skies over Germany, in Burma and Iceland, the Philippines and
Iran, France, in China and Italy, Americans fighting. Fighting over an area extending seven-eighths of
the way around the world. Men from the green hills of New England; the sun-baked plains of the
Middle West; the cotton fields of the South; the close-packed streets of Manhattan, Chicago; the
teeming factories of Detroit, Los Angeles; the endless stretching distances of the Southwest; men from
the hills and from the plains; from the villages and from the cities; bookkeepers; soda jerks; mechanics;
college students; rich man; poor man; beggar man; thief; doctor; lawyer; merchant; chief. Now veteran
fighting men. Yet two years ago many had never fired a gun or seen the ocean or been off the ground.

Americans, fighting for their country while half a world away from it. Fighting for their country, and for
more than their country. Fighting for an idea, the idea bigger than the country. Without the idea the
country might have remained only a wilderness. Without the country, the idea might have remained
only a dream.

[Chorus singing]

Over this ocean. 1607, Jamestown. 1620, Plymouth Rock. Here was America: the sea, the sky, the
virgin continent. We came in search of freedom, facing unknown dangers rather than bend the knee or
bow to tyranny. Out of the native oak and pine we built a house, a church, a watchtower. We cleared a
field, and there grew up a colony of free citizens. We carved new states out of the green wilderness:
Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Carolina.

Then came the first test in the defense of that liberty: 1775, Lexington. Our leaders spoke our deepest
needs:

[Quoting James Otis] “Colonists are by the law of nature free-born, as indeed all men are!”

[Quoting Thomas Jefferson] “It is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government.”

[Quoting Thomas Paine] “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

[Quoting Patrick Henry] “But as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

In the midst of battle, it happened. The idea grew, the idea took form. Something new was expressed
by men, a new and revolutionary doctrine, the greatest creative force in human relations: all men are
created equal, all men are entitled to the blessings of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That’s the goal we set for ourselves. Defeat meant hanging. Victory meant a world in which Americans rule
themselves.

1777, Valley Forge. We fought and froze, suffered and died, for what? For the future freedom of all
Americans. A few of us doubted and despaired. Most of us prayed and endured all.

1781, Yorktown. Now we were a free independent nation. The new idea had won its first test. Now to
pass it on to future Americans. The Constitution, the sacred charter of “We the People,” the blood and
sweat of “We the People,” the life and liberty and happiness of “We the People.” The people were to
rule. Not some of the people, not the best people or the worst, not the rich people or the poor, but
“We the People,” all the people.

Text: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Narrator: In this brotherhood America was born, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
We began as 13 states along the Atlantic seaboard. We pushed across the Alleghenies, the Ohio River,
the Mississippi, the last far range of the distant Rockies. We carried freedom with us. No aristocratic
classes here, no kings, no nobles or princes, no state church, no courts, no parasites, no divine right of
man to rule a man. Here humanity was making a clean fresh start from scratch. Behind us we left new
states, chips off the old blocks welded together by freedom.

Chorus [Singing]:

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

Narrator: Until finally we were one nation, a land of hope and opportunity that had arisen out of a
skeptical world. A light was shining, freedom’s light. From every country and every clime, men saw that
light and turned their faces toward it.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

As strangers to one another we came and built a country, and the country built us into Americans. The
sweat of the men of old nations was poured out to build a new. The sweat of our first settlers: the
English, the Scotch, the Dutch, building the workshop of New England; of the Italian in the sulfur mines
of Louisiana; of the Frenchmen and the Swiss in the vineyards of California and New York state; of the
Dane, the Norwegian, the Swede, seeding the good earth to make the Midwest bloom with grain; of the
Pole and the Welshman; of the Negro harvesting cotton in the hot Southern sun; of the Spaniard, the first to roam the great Southwest; of the Mexican in the oil fields of Texas and on the ranches of New
Mexico; of the Greek and the Portuguese, harvesting the crop the oceans yield; of the German with his
technical skill; of the Hungarian and the Russian; of the Irishman, the Slav, and the Chinese working sideby-side – the sweat of Americans. And a great nation was built.

Yes, the sweat of the men of all nations built America – and the blood. For the blood of Americans has
been freely shed. Five times in our history have we withstood the challenge to the idea that made our
nation: the idea of equality for all men; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The idea that made us
the people we are. Let’s take a look at ourselves before we went into this war.

Narrator 2: Well, first of all we’re a working people. On the land, at the work bench, at a desk. And
we’re an inventive people. The lightning rod, cotton gin, the telegraph, the blessed anesthesia of ether,
the rotary printing press, the telephone, electric welding, the incandescent lamp, submarine, steam
turbine, the motor-driven airplane, the x-ray tube, the gyroscope compass, the sewing machine,
television: all these and countless more bear witness to our inventiveness.

Cat: Meow.

Narrator 2: And this inventiveness and enterprise, plus our hard-won democratic ideal of the greatest
good for the greatest number, created for the average man the highest standard of living in the world.
Thirty-two and a half million registered automobiles, two-thirds of all the automobiles there are in the
entire world.

We demand the highest standards in sanitation, purity of food, medical care. Our hospitals are models
for the world to copy. We want the best for the average man, woman, or child – particularly child. We
have reduced the hazard of being born. From then on we protect, foster, and generally spoil the
majority of our children. But it doesn’t seem to hurt them much. They go to school, all kinds of schools:
to kindergartens, public schools, private schools, trade schools, high schools (to 25,000 high schools),
and to college. In the last war 20 percent of all the men in the armed forces had been to high school or
college; in this war, 63 percent.

We’re a great two weeks vacation people. We hunt, and we fish. Up north, down south, back east, out
west – when the season opens we hunt and fish. We’re a sports-loving people. And we’re probably the
travelingest nation in all history. We love to go places. We have the cars, we have the roads, we have
the scenery. We don’t need passports, but sometimes we need alibis. We sleep by the road; we eat by
the road. The foreigner is enchanted and amazed by what we like to put on our stomachs.

And we’re a great joining people. We join clubs, fraternities, unions, federations. Shove a blank at us,
we’ll sign up. Radios – we have one in the living room, the dining room, the bedroom, the bathroom, in
our cars, in our hands, and up our sleeves.

Radio Announcer: Does your cigarette taste different lately?

Narrator 2: Music – we couldn’t be without it.

The press? Yes it’s the biggest, but most important it’s the freest on Earth: over 12,000 newspapers of
all shades of opinion; books on every conceivable subject; and more than 6,000 different magazines, not
counting the comics. Churches? We have every denomination on Earth. Sixty million of us regularly attend and no one dares tell us which one to go to. We elect our own neighbors to govern us. We
believe in individual enterprise and opportunity for men and women alike. We make mistakes. We see
the results. We correct the mistakes. We skyrocket into false prosperities, and then plummet down
into false needless depressions. But in spite of everything, we never lose our faith in the future. We
believe in the future. We build for the future.

Narrator: Yes, we build for the future, and the future always catches up with us. Before we’re done
building, we’ve developed something new and have to start rebuilding. That’s roughly the kind of
people we are: boastful, easy-going, sentimental. But underneath, passionately dedicated to the ideal
our forefathers passed on to us: the liberty and dignity of man. We’ve made great material progress,
but spiritually we’re still in the frontier days. Yet deep down within us there’s a great yearning for peace
and goodwill toward men. Somehow we feel that if men turn their minds toward the fields of peace as
they have toward the fields of transportation, communication, or aviation, wars would soon be as oldfashioned as the horse and buggy days. We hate war. We know that in war it’s the common man who
does the paying, the suffering, the dying. We bend over backwards to avoid it. But let our freedoms be
endangered, and we’ll pay and suffer and fight to the last man. That is the America, that is the way of
living, for which we fight today. Why? Is that fight necessary? Did we want war?

In 1917, before most of you fighting men were born, our fathers fought the First World War to make the
world safe for democracy, for the common man. They fought a good fight and won it. There was to be
no more war in their time or their children’s time. Faithful to our treaty obligations we destroyed much
of our naval tonnage. Our army went on a reducing guide until it became little more than a skeleton.
For us, war was to be outlawed. For us, Europe was far away. And as for Asia, well that was really out of
this world, where everything looked like it was torn from the National Geographic.

Yet in this remote spot in Asia in 1931, while most of you were playing ball in the sandlots, this war
started. Without warning Japan invaded Manchuria. Once again, men who were peaceful became the
slaves of men who were violent. In Washington, D.C. our Secretary of State made a most vigorous
protest: “The American government does not intend to recognize any situation, treaty, or agreement
which may be brought about by means of aggression.”

But we the people hadn’t much time to think about Manchuria. We were wrestling with the worst
depression in our history. Some of us were out of jobs, some of us stood in bread lines, some of us
suffered homemade aggression, some of us were choked with dust, some of us had no place to go.

Two years later in 1933, while most of you were graduating from high school, we read that a funny little
man called Hitler had come into power in Germany. We heard that a thing called the Nazi Party had
taken over. “Today we rule Germany, tomorrow the world.” What kind of talk was that? It must be
only hot air. In 1935, about the time you had your first date, we read that strutting Mussolini had
attacked far-off Ethiopia. A disease seemed to be spreading, so Congress assembled to insulate us
against the growing friction of war.

Senator Hiram Johnson: We want no war, we’ll have no war, saving defense of our own people or our
own honor.

Narrator: Toward this end our chosen representatives passed the Neutrality Act. No nation at war
could buy manufactured arms or munitions from the United States.

In 1936, when you were running around in jalopies, we were disturbed by news from Spain. In our
newsreels we saw German and Italian air forces and armies fighting in Spain and wondered what they
were doing there. For the first time we saw great cities squashed flat, civilians bombed and killed.

In November 1936 the American Institute of Public Opinion, known as the Gallup Poll, asked a
representative cross-section of American people “If another war develops in Europe should America
take part again?” No, 95 percent. We the people had spoken. Nineteen out of 20 of us said “include us
out.” To further insulate ourselves we added a cash and carry amendment to the Neutrality Act. Not
only wouldn’t we sell munitions, but we wouldn’t sell anything at all, not even a spool of thread, unless
warring powers sent their own ships and paid cash on the line.

In 1937, the press services received a flash from Asia. Yes, the Japs were turning Asia into a
slaughterhouse, but for us Asia was still far away. In September 1937, the Gallup Poll asked us “In the
present fight between Japan and China are your sympathies with either side?” We answered: with
China, 43 percent; with Japan, 2 percent; undecided, 55 percent. We hadn’t made up our minds about
China. Our Neutrality Act barred sales of armaments only to nations at war. The Japanese had not
declared war, so we went right on selling scrap iron and aviation gasoline to Japan.

In March 1938, Hitler had not declared war either, but his goose-stepping army suddenly smashed in
and occupied all the soil of Austria. Six months later, Hitler and his stooge met the anxious democracies
at Munich. Hitler promised peace in our time if Britain and France would give him that part of
Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. Britain and France gave him that part of Czechoslovakia
hoping to avert war. Now we had his word, peace in our time.

At home we began to hear strange headlines.

Newspaper Man: Extra! Extra! FBI captures German agent. Read all about it! Nazi spy gang captured.

Narrator: We sat in our theaters unbelieving as motion pictures exposed Nazi espionage in America.

Nazi Speaker: As Germans we know that if America is to be free we must destroy the chain that ties the
whole misery of American politics together and that chain is the United States Constitution!

Nazi Sympathizers: Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Narrator: Could these things really be? Yes, these subversive acts were happening in real life every day.
German-American bunds organized for the purpose of destroying us marched under our very noses.

Nazi Speaker 2: I pledge undivided allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and the
republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Narrator: In our press we read the news from abroad: that Nazis were spending millions, arming
Germany to the teeth. We read that the Tokyo Diet was appropriating tremendous sums, converting
Japan into one vast munitions plant. We watched these supposedly poor, have-not nations spend huge
sums for armament and we wondered why. Arrogantly they told us why: they had declared war on us
long before the shooting started.

Italian-accented Speaker [Quoting Mussolini]: We have actually been at war since the day when we
lifted the flag of our revolution against the democratic world!

German-accented Speaker [Quoting Hitler]: The Germans are a noble and unique race to whom the
Earth was given by the grace of God.

Japanese-accented Speaker [Quoting Lord Hotta]: The world must come to look up to our Emperor as
the great ruler of all nations.

Narrator: When the people of these three nations elected to follow their leaders, death incorporated,
they organized to smash personal freedom, equality of man, freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
organized to smash the very principles which made us the people we are. So in December 1938, when
the Gallup Poll asked us “Should the United States increase the strength of its Army, Navy, and Air
Force?” we answered: yes, 85 percent. It was time to look to our defense.

Representative Andrew J. May: Gentleman, this is the Military Affairs Committee of the United States
House of Representatives meeting for the purpose of considering national defense.

Charles Edison: The Navy is asking for an increase of 25 percent in authorized naval tonnage, in view of
the grave international situation.

Narrator: Congress, reflecting the voice of the people, appropriated the largest sum for military use ever
voted during peace in American history. We didn’t dream that a few years later it would look like
peanuts.

On March 14, 1939, Adolph Hitler broke the pledge he made at Munich. He took over all the rest of
Czechoslovakia. There would be no more peace in our time. April 7, 1939. As we here in America
observed Good Friday:

Newspaper Man: Extra! Mussolini invades Albania. Extra! Paper! Extra! Paper! Italy attacks Albania.

Narrator: The picture was becoming clear. The conquering forces of violence were being set loose in the
world. Where would they stop? In a last desperate effort to avert a world war, President Roosevelt, as a
neutral, sent messages to Hitler and Mussolini asking their promise to respect the independence of 30
free countries.

Adolph Hitler: [Speaking German]

Narrator: To Adolph Hitler this message was a huge joke as he repeated the names to a jeering
Reichstag.

Adolph Hitler: Litauen, Estland, Norwegen, Schweden, Dänemark, Niederlande, Belgien, Großbritannien,
Irland, Frankreich, Portugal, Spanien, die Schweiz, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Polen [Laughter from
crowd], Ungarn, Rumänien, Jugoslawien, Rußland, Bulgarien, Türkei, Irak, Arabien, Syrien, Palästina
[Uproarious laughter from crowd], Ägypten, und Iran.

[Cheering and clapping]

Narrator: This was the only answer the President received.

Reichstag Members: Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Narrator: On September 1, 1939 the Nazi Army smashed into Poland. England and France had a treaty
with Poland. Would they act now? At home we listened in suspense.

Radio Announcer: Adolph Hitler’s all-out attack on Poland makes the long-dreaded European war a
certainty. Prime Minister Chamberlain of Great Britain gave the Nazi dictator a zero hour for
withdrawing his troops from Poland. That zero hour ends now. At this time we transfer you to London
for an important announcement by the British prime minister.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: Up to the very last, it would have been quite possible to have
arranged a peaceful and honorable settlement between Germany and Poland, but Hitler would not have
it. The situation, in which no word given by Germany’s ruler could be trusted and no people or country
could deem itself safe, has become intolerable. Now may God bless you all and may he defend the
right, for it is evil things that we shall be fighting against, and against them I am certain that the right will
prevail.

Radio Announcer: Six hours after Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, the Republic of France
followed. All France is in a maelstrom of activity. The Maginot Line has already opened fire on the
Germans. The sparring has ended. World War II has begun.

Narrator: At home we were asked “What country do you consider responsible for causing this war?”
Germany, 82 percent. We Americans had no doubt who started it. Also we began to fear that this war
was going to concern us. President Roosevelt called a special session of Congress to reconsider the
embargo against selling munitions.

President Franklin Roosevelt: I have asked the Congress to reassemble in extraordinary session, in order
that it may consider and act on changes in our neutrality law.
Narrator: The men of Congress wrestled with their beliefs and our futures. They debated and they
argued.

Senator Gerald P. Nye: The arms embargo is far too great a security to American peace to permit its
surrender without a last-ditch fight.

Senator Elbert D. Thomas: The Embargo Act, as it now stands, is one-sided and works entirely to the
advantage of one side. Therefore the Embargo Act should be modified.

Narrator: We the people also debated and argued whether we should sell arms and munitions. When
the question was put to us we had an answer. “Should we change the Neutrality Act so we can sell war
supplies?” Yes, 57 percent. Shortly after, our representatives changed the Neutrality Act. We lifted the
embargo on arms and munitions. Now we would sell if purchasers would pay and take the stuff away in
their own ships. American ships were still barred from combat zones.

Meanwhile on the other side of the globe, Japan was busy trying to bomb, shoot, and terrorize the
Chinese into submission. We began to realize that if Japan conquered 400 million Chinese, she might become so strong as to run us right out of the Pacific. You will remember that two years earlier in
September 1937 when we were asked “In the Present fight between Japan and China are your
sympathies with either side?” only 43 percent were with China. Most of us were undecided. In June
1939, when we were asked the same question, 74 percent said we were with China. Now our minds
were made up. When we loaded our scrap iron on Japanese ships, our citizens protested. Let Mr.
Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State, tell us the inside of the story.

Dean Acheson: So until the middle of 1940, the restriction of exports to Japan took the form of moral
embargos of airplanes and direct munitions. Then Congress passed the Export Control Act and
increasing cutoffs of scrap iron, aviation gasoline, and other strategic items followed. Exports were
curtailed to the limit which those responsible for our defense were willing to risk. It was a fearful
responsibility. On one side was the possibility, in fact the probability, that one day these materials
might be used against us. On the other side was the possibility, in fact the probability, that to cut them
off would provoke an attack which we were not then prepared to resist. Finally, in the summer of 1941,
as it became clear that Japan was turning her back upon every possibility of reconciliation and
adjustment and was determined upon her great gamble of conquest, all exports ceased.

Narrator: On April 9, 1940, the leaders of Nazi Germany shifted their war machine into high gear. They
overran into Denmark. They smashed into Norway. On May 10, 1940, they blitzed into Holland and
Belgium.

Radio Announcer 2: The Nazis are marching ahead at the fastest speed a conquering army has moved in
all history. All roads in France are choked with slow-moving masses of refugees. Nazi Stuka dive
bombers are strafing and bombing thousands of helpless women and children.

Radio Announcer 3: Mr. Kaltenborn.
H.V. Kaltenborn: Good evening everybody. Tonight it seems clearly apparent that the first great phase
of the war in the west has been won by Germany. The army of French and British has made a valiant
battle in its effort to retreat to Dunkirk where there is some slight chance that some part of it can be
evacuated.

Radio Announcer 4: Adolph Hitler’s mechanized forces are racing toward Paris as French resistance
collapses.

President Franklin Roosevelt: On this tenth day of June 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it
into the back of its neighbor.

William L. Shirer: This is William L. Shirer speaking from the forest of Compiègne where Adolph Hitler
today is handing his armistice terms to France. It is 3:15 p.m. Adolph Hitler strides slowly toward the
middle clearing. I can see his face. It is grave, solemn, yet brimming with revenge. Off to one side is a
large statue of Marshall Foch. Hitler does not appear to see it. Now we see the French walking down
the avenue, led by General Huntzinger. Hitler and the other German leaders rise as the French enter.
General Keitel reads the preamble to the German armistice terms. This whole ceremony is over in a
quarter of an hour.

Female Singer:

The last time I saw Paris her heart was warm and gay.
I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café.
The last time I saw Paris, her trees were dressed for spring.
And lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing.
I dodged the same old taxicabs that I had dodged for years.
The chorus of their squeaky horns was music to my ears.
The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay.
No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way.

Narrator: Conquering armies now stood on the shores of the Atlantic. The danger was suddenly close.
Countries conquered by the Nazis had possessions outside of Europe. Some of these possessions are in
America. Would the Nazis demand the French naval units at Martinique? Would the Nazis move into
the Dutch oil fields at Curacao? Would the Nazis seize the French naval base in Dakar for invasion of
South America?

Already in Brazil there were over one million Germans who lived exactly as they did in Germany: 1,200
German schools with Nazi textbooks and Nazi teachers; Nazi newspapers; Hermann Göring glider clubs
had been established. Also in Brazil, there were 260,000 Japanese taking orders from Japan. In
Ecuador, within easy bombing range of the Panama Canal, German airlines had been established.
German pilots were reserve officers of the Luftwaffe. The German transport planes had bomb racks
already built-in. In Argentine, German athletic clubs similar to the Hitler Youth movement had been
organized exclusively for Germans. Here was a fifth column ready to take over. In Havana, we met with
20 other American republics.

Cordell Hull: There must not be a shadow of a doubt anywhere as to the determination of the American
nations not to permit the invasion of their hemisphere by the armed forces of any power or any possible
combination of powers.

Narrator: Twenty American nations stood firm. The Americas would not allow any European colony in
this hemisphere to be transferred to a non-American power. We said: “Keep-out!” We meant it.

President Franklin Roosevelt: We must increase production facilities for everything needed for the Army
and Navy for national defense. I believe that this nation should plan at this time a program that will
provide us with 50,000 military and naval planes.

Narrator: To protect our shores, we authorized construction of a two-ocean navy, the greatest the
world has ever known. At least it would be the greatest navy when completed in 1944. But then, in
1940, it was only a paper navy. Our fighting forces at that time consisted of an Army of 187,000 men; a
Navy of 120,000; and this dot was the Air Corps, 22,387 strong. All told, 330,000 men. We had
makeshift supplies, makeshift equipment, stove pipes for cannons, bags of flour for bombs, and trucks
were labeled tanks. Our infantry had exactly 488 machine guns. We possessed 235 pieces of field
artillery, 10 light and 18 medium tanks. That was the Army of the United States in May 1940, the month
in which the Nazis overran France. So we called our Minutemen, the National Guards of the 48 states,
and placed them into federal service. And most important, Congress passed the Selective Service Act.
For the first time in our history we began mobilizing an army while still at peace.

President Franklin Roosevelt: The first number is serial number 158.

Men Singing:

This is the Army Mister Jones,
No private rooms or telephones.
You had your breakfast in bed before,
But you won’t have it there anymore.

President Franklin Roosevelt: The second number which has just been drawn is 192.

Men Singing:

This is the Army Mister Green,
We like the barracks nice and clean.
You had a housemaid to clean your floor,
But she won’t help you out anymore.
Do what the buglers command,
They're in the Army and not in a band.
This is the Army Mr. Brown,
You and your baby went to town.
She had you worried but this is war,
And she won’t worry you anymore, more, more,
No she won’t worry you anymore.

Narrator: It wasn’t too soon. Time was running out. The Nazis had begun their shattering blitz on
Britain.

Edward Murrow: Hello America, this is Edward Murrow speaking from London. There were more
German planes over the coast of Britain today than at any time since the war began. Anti-aircraft guns
were in action along the southeast coast today.

Narrator: Back on Main Street, U.S.A., daily we followed Britain’s life struggle, for if Britain died we
would be in grave peril. Our first line of defense in the Atlantic, the British fleet, might go to Nazi
Germany. We would be unprotected, our shores, our people, our homes in danger. Britain must not
fall. In our harbors, idle and rotting, lay ancient destroyers. They had been built for World War I, but
this was World War II, and this gave us an idea. Fifty tired over-age destroyers were revitalized,
transferred to Great Britain.

In return we acquired further protection of our shores. We received a chain of bases stretching from
Newfoundland to British Guiana. These bases threw a steel wall around the Caribbean. These bases
gave new safety to the Panama Canal.

It was now clear to the aggressors that we were conscious of the threat they represented to our
country. Mr. Berle, Assistant Secretary of State, will tell us how they got together and tried to scare us
off.

Adolf Berle: From 1936 on, it became increasingly clear to the world that Germany, Italy, and Japan
were pursuing a common pattern of aggression, both in Europe and in the Far East. On September 27,
1940, these three powers signed the so-called Pact of Berlin or Tripartite Pact, a treaty of far-reaching
alliance. By that treaty, it was provided that the three countries would assist one another with full
political, economic, and military means when one of the powers was attacked – note particularly the use
of the word attack – by a power not then involved in the European war or in the Chinese-Japanese
conflict. The last of these provisions was aimed directly at the United States.

Narrator: Tokyo celebrated. Rome cheered. Berlin Heiled itself hoarse. It was clear now that the three
Axis countries definitely stood against us. More anxious than ever, we watched the life and death
struggle for the possession of the skies over Britain.

Charles A. Lindbergh: Despite the propaganda and confusion of recent months, it is now obvious that
England is losing the war.

Wendell Willkie: England will not only survive, England will win!

Narrator: So, when we were asked, “Should we keep out of war or aid Britain, even at the risk of war?”
Aid Britain, even at the risk of war, 68 percent. Thus the march of conquest of the self-termed master
races changed our national attitude from 1936, when only 1 out of 20 Americans thought we would be
involved in war, to 1941, when 14 out of 20 Americans were willing to risk war if war was necessary to
ensure Axis defeat.

President Franklin Roosevelt: I ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture
additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds to be turned over to those nations which are now
in actual war with aggressor nations. Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for
them as well as for ourselves. We shall send in ever increasing numbers ships, planes, tanks, guns. That
is our purpose and our pledge.

Narrator: By an overwhelming majority Congress passed Lend-Lease – bill number 1776 – another
declaration of independence, independence from tyranny, 1941-style.

On April 6, 1941 the Nazi juggernaut overran into Yugoslavia and Greece. On June 22, 1941, the successcrazy Nazis took their longest step toward world conquest. Without any declaration of war, they blitzed into Russia. We were determined not to let down any nations defending themselves against
unprovoked attack, so we extended Lend-Lease to these new victims. Now the lend-lease products of
our factories were being unloaded in the bombed ports of Great Britain; at the Red Sea ports for the
British in Africa; lend-lease was being hauled over the Burma Road to China; lend-lease was piling up in
Murmansk and Iran for Russia.

Why did we supply war materials to the countries defending themselves against Axis aggression? Was it
our natural sympathies for people unwilling to lose their freedom? Was it our ancient antagonism to
conquerors imposing their rule on others by force? Yes, partly, but principally it was because the
American people had become certain that they were on the list of free nations to be conquered.

German-accented Speaker [quoting Hitler]: Two worlds are in conflict…two philosophies of life…one of
these two worlds must break asunder.

Narrator: And we were the leading example of that free world that Hitler was committed to breaking
asunder. What would have been our defensive position, if the aggressors had succeeded in conquering
Britain, Russia, and China?

Narrator 3: German conquest of Europe and Africa would bring all their raw materials, plus their entire
industrial development, under one control. Of the two billion people in the world, the Nazis would rule
roughly one quarter, the 500 million people of Europe and Africa forced into slavery to labor for
Germany. German conquest of Russia would add the vast raw materials and the production facilities of
another of the world’s industrial areas. And of the world’s people, another 200 million would be added
to the Nazi labor pile. Japanese conquest of the Orient would pour into their factory the almost
unlimited resources of that area. And of the peoples of the Earth, a thousand million would come under
their rule, slaves for their industrial machine.

Narrator: We in North and South America would be left with the raw materials of three-tenths of the
earth’s surface against the Axis with the resources of seven-tenths. We would have one industrial
region against their three industrial regions. We would have one-eighth of the world’s population
against their seven-eighths. If we together with the other nations of North and South America could
mobilize 30 million fully equipped men, the Axis could mobilize 200 million. Thus an Axis victory in
Europe and Asia would leave us alone and virtually surrounded, facing enemies ten times stronger than
ourselves.

These are the reasons that led us, the American people, to change the Neutrality Act, to send aid to
Britain, to Russia, to China, to make ourselves the arsenal of democracy. These are the reasons why
now the first American troops set forth into the Atlantic, to occupy new bases in Greenland and Iceland
with the consent of their local governments. In our hands, bases of defense; in Nazi hands, bases of
offense.

German Soldier: [Speaking German]

Narrator: The Germans opened unrestricted submarine warfare.

Henry L. Stimson: If today our Navy should make secure the seas for the delivery of our munitions to
Great Britain, it will render as great a service to our country and to the preservation of American
freedom as it has ever rendered in all its glorious history.

Wendell Willkie: We want those cargos protected.

Narrator: An aroused Congress repealed the entire Neutrality Act.

Text: Neutrality Act Repealed. We deliver arms to those fighting aggression.

Narrator: We armed our merchants. And for the first time they steamed into combat zones to deliver
lend-lease. While this was going on in the Atlantic, the Japs, by a so called-agreement with the puppet
government of defeated France, moved in on Indochina. There were now only two threats to their plan for conquest of Greater East Asia. First was their northern neighbor Russia, the only military power
within striking distance of Japan. The Nazis were taking care of Russia. The second threat to Japanese
conquest was us. Japanese southward expansion was too dangerous to attempt with our bases still
standing in the Philippines and our supply lines open to Wake, to Midway, and to Hawaii. We were in
their way. We had to be removed, but in the Japanese way.

Off to Washington went Special Ambassador Kurusu on what the Japs said was a mission of peace. But
carefully synchronized with his departure from Tokyo was the departure of a Jap taskforce under sealed
orders, not on a mission of peace. On November 14, Mr. Kurusu arrived in San Francisco, smiling his
toothy smile as he sang the old song of Japanese friendship. The Japanese were a peace-loving people.
Their whole policy was devoted to the establishment of permanent peace in Asia. Our aid to China was
delaying the establishment of that peace. Our refusal to sell them oil and scrap was interfering with the
establishment of that peace. Our objections to their taking over the East Indies, Greater East Asia, was
an interruption in the establishment of that peace. All they wanted was peace. On November 17, Mr.
Kurusu and Japanese Ambassador Nomura were received by the President in the presence of the
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull. It very quickly became clear that the Japanese had brought no new
proposals and that the Japanese intended to continue their campaign to conquer China and all East Asia.
However, on November 26, our Secretary of State presented the Japanese with the basis for peaceful
agreement between the two nations. The proposal was forwarded to Tokyo. The Japs had to stall for
time, but only a short time. The task force was nearing its goal.

Sunday, December 7, 1941.

Japanese Soldiers: [Speaking Japanese]

Narrator: 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The Japanese emissaries are expected at the State Department
to keep a one o’clock appointment they had requested in order to present their answers to our
proposals.

1:05 p.m. The Japanese planes are approaching Hawaii.

1:10 p.m. The Japanese emissaries telephone to postpone their appointment until 1:45.

1:20 p.m.

2 p.m. The Japanese envoys, smiling and correct, arrive at the State Department.

2:20 p.m. Japanese planes had been sowing death and destruction for an hour on American outposts in
the Pacific when the Japanese envoys presented a memorandum to Mr. Hull.

Cordell Hull: Here is the memorandum presented to me. As you can see, it is quite a lengthy document.
I read it hurriedly, discovering that it contained a recital of monstrous accusations against the United
Sates, charging it among other things with, quote, “Scheming for the extension of the war; preparing to
attack Germany and Italy, two powers striving to establish a new order in Europe; and ignoring Japan’s
sacrifices in the four years of the China affair, menacing the empire’s existence itself and disparaging its
honor and prestige.” After reading the note, I said to the Japanese emissaries, “I have never seen a
document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I
never imagined that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them.”

President Franklin Roosevelt: I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly
attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and
the Japanese Empire.

Chorus: [Singing]

Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,

Text: “…victory of the democracies can only be complete with the utter defeat of the war machines of
Germany and Japan.” – G.C. Marshall, Chief of Staff.

Chorus: [Singing]

Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

This primary source comes from the Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

National Archives Identifier: 36073

Full Citation: Motion Picture 111-OF-7; War Comes to America; 1942; Orientation Films, 1942 - 1949; Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Record Group 111; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/war-comes-to-america, December 5, 2024]

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War Comes to America

1942

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