Warning: contains some graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.

This film was an episode from the “Front of Action Series,” which consisted of propaganda films produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in effort to boost morale and show the Allied war effort during the Second World War. These films were distributed internationally by United Artists. This episode, “The Mask of Nippon,” is an anti-Japanese propaganda film that looks at Japanese society and industry, and the unholy alliance between Japan and Nazi Germany. It also portrays Japanese aggression in China and greater Asia. The narrator was actor Lorne Greene. The director was Margaret Palmer. The writer was Stuart Legg.

The film opens with images of Japanese soldiers on the offensive in China — images of troops hiking up a mountain through vegetation (0:36). Soldiers running (0:40). Soldiers aim their guns (0:57). Soldiers tussle with civilians and commit atrocities (1:04). Soldiers burying civilian bodies (1:20). Smoke coming up from the earth (1:57). Mountains (2:11). Farm land (2:20). Old temple (2:25). Japanese women washing clothes in the stream (2:30). Japanese men working (2:34). Japanese religious ceremony (2:57). Cherry blossom (3:15). Samurai (3:21). Children play on a seesaw (3:59). Japanese women drawing (4:11). Japanese men smoking (4:19). Old temple (4:35). Drawing of a Japanese Emperor (4:52). Trains in Japan (5:02). Japanese civilians walk on the street (5:23). Japanese students studying (5:38). Factory in Japan (6:00). Industrial smoke and fire (6:08). Japanese car manufacturing plant (6:12). Fabric factory (6:23). Japanese factory workers (6:31). Japanese ships (6:48). Ship on the ocean (7:03). Train moving across a bridge (7:18). Cars driving on a road along the side of a mountain (7:32). Japanese restaurant/nightclub (7:56). Japanese street at night (8:01). Hideki Tojo, who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association from 1941 to 1944 during World War II (8:11). Japanese soldiers (8:25). Map of Asia (8:51). Rubber plantation (9:27). Mining for chrome, tin, and nickel (9:37). Japanese soldiers board a ship (9:55). Sign reading, “Bazar Japones Ohmura” (10:22). Japanese children (10:33). Japanese women doing a traditional dance (10:44). Packard Six 1600 Touring Sedan (11:04). Joseph Stalin and Hideki Tojo (11:14). Hideki Tojo signing a document (11:30). Nazi Germany and Japanese flag as emissaries from the two nations meet in Germany (11:49). Man gives a speech to the Japanese people in Tokyo Central Park (11:55). Japanese military band (12:15). Nazi flag (12:20). Hideki Tojo (12:32). Crowd cheers (12:58). Japanese military marching band (13:04). Japanese soldiers march in the parade (13:13). Japanese women pray at a temple (13:39). Japanese soldiers carrying boxes (13:54). Cars carrying caskets of fallen soldiers (14:00). Children taking medicine (14:05). Young boys wearing military goggles (14:32). Children playing tug-of-war (14:47). Japanese children playing sports (14:54). Japanese schools for various military professions including learning semaphore flag codes and decoding morse code (15:11). Japanese soldiers running with their weapons drawn (15:27). Japanese soldiers cross country skiing (15:34). Japanese men working out in speedos (15:41). Japanese soldiers sleeping in barracks (16:46). Japanese man blowing a horn (16:50). Japanese soldiers wash themselves as soon as they wake (17:01). Japanese soldiers bow (17:12). Japanese soldiers eating at a dining hall (17:16). Japanese soldiers marching (18:08). Ships at sea (18:31). U.S. navy Aircraft carrier with Devastator torpedo planes ready to take off (18:33). TBD Dauntless aircraft dropping bombs (18:50). Snow troops cross country skiing (19:40). Pre-WWII tanks exercise (19:44).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com