- 7/2/2025
Before the battles, before the bombs—there was a buildup of fear, propaganda, and political manipulation. Road to War – How the World Ignited explores the events that led to the outbreak of World War II. Produced by Frank Capra as part of the U.S. government's wartime documentary series, this powerful film reveals how totalitarian regimes rose to power and how the free world was drawn into global conflict.
Restored from public domain sources. No icons or overlays added to maintain historical integrity.
Restored from public domain sources. No icons or overlays added to maintain historical integrity.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The End
00:30The End
01:00The End
01:30Causes and events leading up to our entry into the war.
01:46Well, what are the causes?
01:49Why are we Americans on the march?
01:51Is it because of...
01:58Pearl Harbor?
02:03Is that why we are fighting?
02:06Or is it because of...
02:09Britain?
02:09France!
02:23France!
02:23China!
02:40China!
02:40Czechoslovakia!
02:47Czechoslovakia!
02:52Norway!
03:02Poland!
03:03Poland!
03:04Greece!
03:05Belgium!
03:06Albania!
03:08Yugoslavia!
03:10Greece!
03:11Greece!
03:17Greece!
03:18Belgium!
03:19Albania!
03:20Yugoslavia!
03:21Yugoslavia!
03:22Or Russia!
03:28Or Russia!
03:30Or Russia!
03:34Or Russia!
03:35Hello, you king!
03:39Hello, you king!
03:42securely!
03:43February 1st, 2016
03:48just what was it made us
03:50change our way of living overnight.
03:53Just what was it made us change our way of living overnight?
04:06What turned our resources, our machines,
04:09our whole nation into one vast arsenal,
04:13producing more and more weapons of war
04:15instead of the old materials of peace?
04:23What put us in a uniform ready to engage the enemy
04:29on every continent and every ocean?
04:41What are these two worlds of which Mr. Wallace spoke?
04:46The free and the slave.
04:50Let's take the free world first.
04:52Our world.
04:54How did it become free?
04:56Only through a long and unceasing struggle
04:58inspired by men of vision.
05:01Moses.
05:05Muhammad.
05:09Confucius.
05:14Christ.
05:15All believed that in the sight of God, all men were created equal.
05:23And from that there developed a spirit among men and nations,
05:27which is best expressed in our own declaration of freedom.
05:31We hold these truths to be self-evident,
05:34that all men are created equal.
05:37It is the cornerstone upon which our nation was built
05:40and the ideal of all the great liberators.
05:44Washington.
05:46Jefferson.
05:47Garibaldi.
05:49Lafayette.
05:51Kishuska.
05:52Bolivar.
05:54Lincoln.
05:56Lighthouses.
05:57Lighting up a dark and foggy world.
06:01That government of the people,
06:03by the people,
06:06for the people,
06:07shall not perish from the earth.
06:11Fighting.
06:12Living.
06:13Dying.
06:14For what?
06:15For freedom.
06:16That for which men have fought since time began.
06:20To be free.
06:27Is life so dear,
06:29or peace so sweet,
06:31as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
06:33Forbid it, almighty God.
06:37I know not what course others may take.
06:41But as for me,
06:43give me liberty,
06:45or give me death.
06:49But what of this other world?
06:53Here, men insisted that progress lay in killing freedom.
06:57Here, they were putting out the lighthouses,
07:00one by one.
07:01Here, the march of history was reversing itself.
07:06In Italy, it began when an ambitious rabble-rouser
07:09set his followers marching on Rome.
07:15The country, like every other country after the last war,
07:18was torn by political unrest,
07:21hard times,
07:22unemployment.
07:23Two courses were available to the Italian people.
07:30They could solve their problems in a free, democratic way,
07:34or they could let someone else do the solving for them.
07:37They made the tragic mistake of choosing the second course.
07:40They put their trust and faith in this one man.
07:43They believed he represented them.
07:46Actually, he planned to betray them
07:47for the selfish interests of himself
07:49and the group back of him,
07:52just as he had earlier betrayed those
07:54who first supported him.
07:56In Germany, another and even more forceful demigod
07:59set his followers marching from the Munich Beer Hall.
08:03He, too, had the sinister opportunity
08:05to take advantage of post-war chaos.
08:17But he also had certain distinctive German characteristics
08:20to play on.
08:22To start with,
08:23the Germans have an inborn national love
08:26of regimentation and a harsh discipline.
08:28He could give them that.
08:35The German army, and through them,
08:40the people, had never acknowledged
08:41German defeat in the last war
08:43and were anxious for revenge.
08:46That, too, he promised them.
08:48The wealthy and powerful industrialists
08:50were fearful of losing any of their wealth and power
08:53and were ready to back anyone
08:54who would retain it for them.
08:56He promised to take care of them, too.
08:59This man cunningly played all these ends
09:02against the middle
09:03and ruthlessly set out to murder
09:05the new-born German Republic.
09:09In Japan, you'd expect things
09:11to be done a little differently.
09:13They were.
09:15Here, not one man, but a gang
09:17disguised their little schemes
09:19as the will of the emperor.
09:21And to the Japanese people,
09:22the emperor is God.
09:26Taking advantage of their fanatical worship
09:28of the god-emperor,
09:29it was no great trick to take away
09:31what little freedom they had ever known.
09:33Yes, in these lands,
09:35the people surrendered their liberties
09:37and threw away their human dignity.
09:47They gave up their rights
09:49as individual human beings.
09:50They became a part of a mass,
09:58a human herd.
10:06Although these countries were far apart
10:08and different in custom and in language,
10:10the same poison made them much alike.
10:13Each got a new uniform.
10:15In Italy, the new bosses wore black shirts.
10:18In Germany, the shirts were brown.
10:21In Japan, they hid behind the uniform of the army.
10:24But really, they belonged to a sinister, secret society.
10:28Their symbol was a black dragon.
10:30The other fellows had to have a symbol, too.
10:33In Germany, a swastik.
10:36In Italy, the old Roman symbol of the past.
10:40In Germany, they called the new order
10:42National Socialism or Nazism.
10:46In Italy, they had a shorter word.
10:53Fascism.
10:55In Japan, they had lots of names for it.
10:59The new era of enlightenment.
11:01The new order in Asia.
11:03The co-prosperity sphere.
11:05But no matter how you slice it,
11:08it was just plain old-fashioned militaristic imperialism.
11:12The Japs would get the prosperity
11:13and the others would get the cold.
11:17They say trouble always comes in threes.
11:21Take a good, close look at this trio.
11:24Remember these faces.
11:27Remember them well.
11:29If you ever meet them, don't hesitate.
11:32Stop thinking and follow me, cried Hitler.
11:42I will make you masters of the world.
11:45And the people answered,
11:46Heil!
11:47Heil!
11:52Stop thinking and believe in me,
11:54bellowed Mussolini.
11:55And I will restore the glory that was wrong.
11:58And the people answered,
12:00Duce! Duce!
12:02Stop thinking and follow your god-emperor,
12:06cried the Japanese warlords.
12:09And Japan will rule the world.
12:11And the people answered,
12:13Banzai! Banzai!
12:14Banzai!
12:16Each system was alike
12:17in that the constitutional law-making bodies
12:20gave up their power.
12:22The Reichstag in Berlin.
12:24The House of Deputies in Rome.
12:27The Diet in Tokyo.
12:28And these elected representatives
12:31became collections of stooges,
12:33rubber stamp organizations.
12:35Duce!
12:36Duce!
12:36Applauding on cue,
12:41the words of the leaders.
12:43Each system did away with free speech
12:45and free assembly.
12:47Each system did away with a free press
12:50and substituted a press controlled by the party.
12:53Through their ministries of propaganda,
12:55each took complete control of the theater,
12:58the movies,
12:59the radio.
13:00Every cultural activity
13:01and every channel of information
13:03was controlled by the most important members of the party.
13:07Each did away with free courts
13:09and trial by jury
13:10and substituted courts and judges
13:13run by the party.
13:15Each abolished labor unions
13:17and the rights of bargaining for wages.
13:22Fertig machen zur Meldung!
13:24Achtung!
13:27Abteilung 6, 310
13:28mit 1, 3, 114 beim Trambau.
13:32Danke.
13:34Heilter!
13:36Heilter!
13:37Lassen Sie weiterarbeiten.
13:38Weiterarbeiten!
13:39And under the pretext of patriotism
13:41established a system of forced labor.
13:44Each enforced its decrees
13:46by an army of secret police
13:47who held the power of life and death
13:49over every individual.
13:51And for the few who still believed in freedom
13:54and said so,
13:56there was a ready answer.
14:04For a month,
14:05she went for a silence.
14:07The greatest intellect in the world
14:12can be silenced with this.
14:14That is an exact translation
14:16of the words these black shirts
14:17cheer so lustily.
14:19Whenever I hear anyone mention
14:27the word culture,
14:28the first thing I do
14:29is reach for my gun.
14:32Yes, they had the answer.
14:33The blackjack
14:35and the gun.
14:37In Italy, they did it different.
15:00While in Japan...
15:02While in Japan...
15:19To their names can be added
15:27those of hundreds and thousands of others
15:30who stood in the way
15:31of the new order.
15:34Finally, there is only one obstacle left.
15:36The word of God
15:45and the word of purers
15:48cannot be reconciled.
16:03Then God must go.
16:12I am absolutely clear in my own mind
16:15and I think I can speak for the Fuhrer as well
16:17that both the Catholic and Protestant churches
16:20must vanish from the life of our people.
16:22Thus spoke Dr. Alfred Rosenberg.
16:25And if you have any doubt
16:26that he spoke for his Fuhrer,
16:28here's what happened.
16:29And if you have any doubt
16:30that he was born in the name of the U.S.
16:31And if you have any doubt
16:32that he was born in the name of the U.S.
16:34and if you have any doubt
16:35that he was born in the name of the U.S.
16:36and your son.
16:40And your son has recently been cleaned and tested.
16:43You have a better way of the U.S.
16:47Oh, come ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.
16:59Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem.
17:13Thousands of other men of God, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, were persecuted, arrested,
17:21confined in concentration camps.
17:25Our Fuhrer is the intermediary between his people and the throne of God.
17:29Everything the Fuhrer utters is religion in the highest sense.
17:33It is only on one or two exceptional points that Christ and Hitler stand comparison.
17:38For Hitler is far too big a man to be compared with one so petty.
17:43Every day in all German classrooms...
17:49Adolf Hitler is, unser Retter, unser Herr,
17:57Der edelste Fuhrer auf der ganzen, ganzen Welt.
18:03Für Hitler leben wir und für den Scheren gerne wir.
18:10Für den Fuhrer bis zum Tod.
18:14There is, there is, unser Gott.
18:22Yes, take children from the faith of their fathers and teach them the state is the only church.
18:27And the head of the state is the voice of God.
18:31Undead!
18:32Undead!
18:33Undead!
18:34Undead!
18:35Undead!
18:36Undead!
18:37Undead!
18:38Undead!
18:39Undead!
18:40Undead!
18:41Undead!
18:42Undead!
18:43Undead!
18:44Undead!
18:45Undead!
18:46Undead!
18:47Undead!
18:48Undead!
18:49Undead!
18:50Undead!
18:51Undead!
18:52Undead!
18:53Undead!
18:54Undead!
18:55Undead!
18:56Undead!
18:57Undead!
18:58Undead!
27:19And on Sunday, if you felt like it, John Q. went to any church he pleased.
27:37We are still here.
28:07Most of all, he got a kick out of seeing his kids grow up.
28:37The average American was quite unconscious of the fact that some people had this in mind
29:04for the little John Kings.
29:05See you, see you, see you in the mirror, John.
29:07Would you also do that?
30:05But they weren't comic.
30:12They weren't funny.
30:14They were deadly serious.
30:15They were out for world conquests.
30:47Take a good look at these humorless men.
30:50These were to be the rulers of the ruling race.
30:52Now bear us blindly, and you will attain your rightful place in the world.
31:04All the people will be your slaves.
31:07That's what they promised them.
31:09That Americans, Chinese, Russian, South Americans, all free peoples would work for them and make them rich.
31:16And how they ate it up.
31:18We shall restore the glory that was wrong.
31:32Today we rule Germany.
31:35Tomorrow the world.
31:36It was inevitable that these countries should gang up on us.
31:46The little fellow is our pal, Curacao, who smiled his way into our hearts in December 1941.
31:53Here he and his friends are busy carving up the world in advance, staking out their claims.
31:58Take a good look at these claims.
32:01Here was the Italy that Mussolini took over in 1922.
32:05And almost his first act was to tell the Italians they were the rightful owners of Corsica, Nice, Savoia, Albania, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and a land corridor linking it with Libya.
32:21Later on he had an even bigger dream.
32:23The old Roman Empire had existed nearly 2,000 years ago.
32:28To dominate all the lands adjoining the Mediterranean.
32:33Mari Nostra.
32:35Our sea, they called it, just as the ancient Romans did.
32:39As for the Japanese, they had some ambitions too.
32:42By 1920, they had grabbed off Formosa, Korea, and the southern half of the island of Sakhalin.
32:49Then Baron Gishi Tanaka, the prime minister, carefully set down Japanese aims in a document called the Tanaka Memorial.
32:58It was presented to the emperor July 25th, 1927.
33:01Here was their dream.
33:11Manchuria for raw materials.
33:13China for manpower.
33:14Then a triumphant march through Indochina, Siam, Burma, India, the East Indies, and on through Australia and New Zealand.
33:24And in the north, all they claimed was that part of Russia, east of Lake Baikal.
33:29That was to be the new order in Asia.
33:31Then the Japs would move eastward to crush the United States and really start their co-prosperity sphere.
33:41Now take a look at the bike the Nazis reserved for themselves.
33:45Here's the Germany Hitler walked into.
33:48And here's what he wanted.
33:50First, Europe under his complete political or economic control.
33:55Leaving Mussolini a share of the loot if he behaved himself.
33:58Then the drive to the east, through the rich oil lands of Iran and Iraq, into India.
34:07Another push south through Africa.
34:09Then, from Dakar, jump off to meet the honorary Aryans who were to move in on South America through the Pacific.
34:19At the same time, start across from the Scandinavian country to hook up with his buck-toothed pals coming over from Siberia to join in the conquest of the United States.
34:31There it is, gents.
34:33All they left us was Shangri-La.
34:35And they'd claim that, too, if they knew where it was.
34:37And did they think they had a chance?
34:41Listen.
34:47When war comes between Japan and the United States, I shall not be content merely to occupy Guam, the Philippines, Hawaii, and San Francisco.
34:57I look forward to dictating the peace to the United States in the White House at Washington.
35:02Yamamoto wrote those words on January of 1941.
35:06Yes, the conquering Jap army down Pennsylvania Avenue.
35:12That was the final goal.
35:14You will see what they did to the men and women of Nanking, Hong Kong, and Manila.
35:18Imagine the field day they'd enjoy if they'd marched through the streets of Washington.
35:22But before striking, a preliminary step was necessary.
35:27From Berlin, from Rome, from Tokyo, the campaign started.
35:35Propaganda to confuse, divide, soften up their intended victim.
35:40Put them on the defensive.
35:43Scream you're abused.
35:45Shout you're oppressed.
35:46The world's wrong.
35:48You're right.
35:49If you shriek it loud enough and often enough, they'll believe you.
35:52Above all, use their free press and their free speech to destroy them.
35:57Laban's wrong, they demanded.
36:02Living room.
36:06Our lands are overcrowded.
36:09But at the same time, they gave prizes to mothers who bore the most sons.
36:13They brought together large groups of young men and young girls for human breeding.
36:25Read what one of their leaders wrote.
36:27Of course, the children from this assembly line belong to the state to be scientifically trained for conquest.
36:57Another howl was the lack of raw material.
37:11They claimed they were the have-nots and we were the haves.
37:17But out of this supposed lack, they built up the greatest war machines the world has ever known.
37:22These are the published figures from the German military budget.
37:32Actually, between 1933 and 1939, Hitler's program of rearmament cost more than $80 billion.
37:43The Nazis alone assembled a striking force of 30 panzer divisions, 70 motorized divisions,
37:50140 infantry divisions, plus the Luftwaffe, the world's largest air force.
37:59And they had no raw materials.
38:02Think of the bread, the automobiles, the good things of life that the German, Italian, Japanese leaders
38:08might have given their people if they had spent this money for peace instead of war.
38:14You know what billions we are now spending to match their military force?
38:19No.
38:20No, these arguments were all smokescreens.
38:23When war came, the democracies proved to be the have-nots and our enemies the haves.
38:30And when war came, where did it come?
38:32Remember that date, September 18, 1931.
38:49A date we should remember as well as December 7, 1941.
38:54For on that date, in 1931, the war we are now fighting began.
39:00The place was Manchuria, the northernmost province of China, 6,000 miles from San Francisco.
39:09Manchuria, the first objective in the Tanaka Plan.
39:13By September 18, the Japanese, who by treaty patrolled the Southern Manchurian Railway,
39:19had secretly and illegally increased their garrisons.
39:22On the Korean-Manchurian border, an entire Japanese army was assembled,
39:30conveniently equipped for a winter campaign.
39:34All they needed was an excuse.
39:37They made their own.
39:39At 10.30 that night, just after the Mukden Express had passed by,
39:43a section of track was dynamited, causing damage to one rail and two fish plates.
39:47Japan's honor had been violated.
39:56Within half an hour, the Japanese railroad garrison launched a coordinated attack
40:00on the barracks of the sleeping Chinese army at Mukden.
40:04The slaughter was appalling.
40:06By midnight, the conveniently placed Japanese army poured across the Korean border,
40:15and the first open act of aggression, the invasion of Manchuria, was on.
40:21In four days, they had occupied the whole of southern Manchuria,
40:25and shortly after, the whole country.
40:28Manchuria became Manchukuo,
40:32a puppet state with an obedient stooge on the throne, Henry Puyi,
40:37a weakling whom the Japanese had prepared for the job
40:40with seven years of women and song.
40:47In Washington, Henry L. Stimson, then Secretary of State, now Secretary of War,
40:52sent out a blistering denunciation of the attack.
40:55The League of Nations sent a committee of five, headed by Lord Lytton,
40:59and including our own General Frank McCoy, to Manchuria to investigate.
41:04In October of 1932, the committee issued its report.
41:09We found that the Japanese occupation of this large part of China
41:14was not justified on the ground of self-defense,
41:18and that the new state which had been set up
41:21was a Japanese protectorate rather than a genuine case
41:25of Manchurian self-determination.
41:28Shortly after, the League condemned Japan as an aggressor nation.
41:31It is a matter of common knowledge
41:49that Japan's policy is fundamentally inspired by a genuine desire
41:57to guarantee peace in the Far East
42:00and to contribute to the maintenance of peace throughout the world.
42:07Japan, however,
42:10finds it impossible to accept
42:13the report adopted by the Assembly.
42:17In answer, the Japanese delegates,
42:20knowing there were no guns behind this condemnation,
42:24smiled,
42:25took up their briefcases,
42:28marched out of the League.
42:29More than Manchuria was dead.
42:32Collective security was dead.
42:34A green light had been given the aggressors.
42:37We and the rest of the world knew
42:39that these aggressors should be stopped and punished,
42:41but we were unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices
42:44to back up that opinion.
42:47It was impossible to convince a farm boy in Iowa
42:49or a driver of a London bus
42:52or a waiter in a Paris cafe
42:54that he should go to war
42:55because of a mud hut in Manchuria.
43:02Yet the subsequent course of history makes it clear
43:05that that incident,
43:08so many miles away,
43:09is the reason that you and millions of others
43:11are in uniform today.
43:16The Japs had Manchuria.
43:18Phase number one of the Tanaka Plan was completed.
43:21Phase number two,
43:23the conquest of China.
43:26In 1932, without warning,
43:28the Japs attacked the Chinese city of Shanghai.
43:39The Japs嗨 was created as a human history.
43:40The Japs signed from the country used to create
43:42the T plays,
43:43theoscope was created as a hero
43:43of its means of national distance.
43:47Ryan рак and the Japs had been
43:47as a man in the Marine trials.
43:50But the Japs had been in mythical
43:52of the Japs'un and�뇨.
43:53The Japs had been in the consonants
43:54after the chemist would be
43:54in a inverter as a毎g condition.
43:56Back to the West.
44:07nuevos days in supporters
44:08Oh, my God.
44:38Oh, my God.
45:08Here they met such stubborn resistance that they had to pour more than 75,000 troops
45:25into the local battle before capturing the city.
45:28This resistance made them decide to shift their campaign to the north.
45:31And in 1933, they added the province of Yeho to Manchuria.
45:37Yes, the Japs launched the second phase of the Tanaka plan, but they had yet to finish it.
45:43A united nation stands against them.
45:46Under the inspired leadership of General Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese people fought and still fight on.
45:58Meantime, what of Japan's partners?
46:02What helpless people were they planning to bomb, slaughter, drive into slavery?
46:08Hitler was not yet ready, but Mussolini was.
46:11Mussolini had to be.
46:13His people were growing restless.
46:16Fascism hadn't produced the heaven on earth that he had promised them.
46:19So he pulled the old trick of launching a foreign war to divert attention from troubles at home.
46:24So Mussolini beat his chest like Tarzan and looked around for a worthy foe.
46:30He found one.
46:32Ethiopia.
46:35A good country for the beginning of a glorious empire.
46:39Its army had no machine guns.
46:42Its army had no tanks.
46:44Its army did have an air force.
46:47Exactly one old airplane.
46:49One airplane against the nation which had developed the new theory of total air war.
46:56Of the blitz which would wipe out cities, destroy civilians, men, women, and child.
47:02In October of 1935, following the Japanese example,
47:07an incident was provoked at the little settlement of Walwal near the border of Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland.
47:15Italy's honor had been violated.
47:17Refusing any arbitration, Mussolini moved the whole might of his army through the Suez Canal
47:23to overrun the undefended country.
47:27Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie appeared before the League of Nations.
47:37I must still fight on until my tardy allies appear.
47:41And if they never come, I say to you without bitterness,
47:44the West will perish.
47:47Members of the League half-heartedly stopped trading with Italy,
47:55but refused the only thing that will stop any aggressor.
47:59Force.
48:03Ethiopia was left to herself.
48:07Native leaders came to pledge their allegiance.
48:09The people of Ethiopia, with their spears and bare hands,
48:28faced the guns and the tanks of the invaders,
48:31fighting desperately and gallantly to save their country from conquest.
48:35They fought.
48:35They fought.
48:36They fought, and they died.
49:05But in the end, there could be but one result.
49:10Might triumphed.
49:13Italy conquered Ethiopia.
49:15Many of our elected leaders warned us of danger.
49:19Without a declaration of war, and without warning or justification of any kind,
49:27civilians, including vast numbers of women and children,
49:32are being ruthlessly murdered with bombs from the air.
49:38But we were still hypnotized by the fact that two broad oceans stood between us and the rest of the world.
49:44We didn't realize that the time when months were needed to span these oceans was ended,
49:49that the steamship had cut these months to days,
49:52and that now the whole Earth's surface could be covered in the space of ours.
49:56Yes, we were a nation that wanted peace.
50:00But we hadn't yet learned that peace for us depends on peace for all.
50:05Nobody would run the risk of war because of some mud huts and barren plains in Ethiopia
50:10any more than we would run the risk for some similar huts and plains in Manchuria.
50:15Correctly interpreting our attitude,
50:19the aggressors were all the surer that they could get what they wanted.
50:23Japan had started on her march at conquest.
50:27Italy had begun her new empire.
50:30And now the third gangster.
50:32What about him?
50:34We'll take him up on our next film
50:35and show how he joined his partners and put in his bid.
50:39For this is what we are fighting.
50:42Freedom's oldest enemy.
50:44The passion of the few to rule the many.
50:47This isn't just a war.
50:50This is a common man's life and death struggle against those who would put him back into slavery.
50:55We lose it, and we lose everything.
50:58Our homes.
51:00The jobs we want to go back to.
51:03The books we read.
51:05The very food we eat.
51:07The hopes we have for our kids.
51:09The kids themselves.
51:12They won't be ours anymore.
51:14That's what's at stake.
51:17It's us or them.
51:20The chips are down.
51:22Two worlds stand against each other.
51:24One must die.
51:27One must live.
51:29One hundred and seventy years of freedom decrees our answer.
51:33Coming from the怒
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