World War II

The Japanese surrender at the end of WWII allowed U.S. troops to peacefully enter as an occupation force. What they found and how they transformed their former enemy is told through the work of a team of cameramen who recorded it all on color film. They were among the first to witness the devastation wrought by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also captured on film the first free elections and the birth of Japanese democracy.

Victory Through Air Power is an American animated documentary propaganda film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists on July 17, 1943. It is based on the 1942 book Victory Through Air Power by Alexander P. de Seversky. De Seversky appeared in the film, an unusual departure from the Disney animated feature films of the time. Improved upload.

Several years after his release from Spandau prison, where he completed his twenty-year sentence for war crimes, Albert Speer is interviewed by Canadian reporter Patrick Watson. The interview reveals Speer’s assessment of his life, and chronicles the rise and fall of the Nazi regime.

British historian David Irving scripted this two-hour video special, based on his book Hitler’s War. Researching, writing, and revising this book, he spent many years privately interviewing members of Hitler’ staff and his generals. When it appeared in 1977, it was an instant best-seller.

This documentary called 'Did we have to Fight?' explores Britain's options in the run-up to the Second World War. It will be particularly useful for students of appeasement, Neville Chamberlain, and of the wider conflict. Re-uploaded.

This program investigates the fate of the two-and-a-half million Indians who fought for Britain during the Second World War. It looks at how they were forgotten by Britain, and disowned by India after the war and faced racism and prejudice.

The Night of the Long Knives, or the Röhm purge, also called Operation Hummingbird (Unternehmen Kolibri), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Röhm – the so-called Röhm Putsch.

By spring of 1942, Japan controlled the western Pacific, the Philippines, and large parts of Indochina. America and her allies knew that final victory could only be achieved by unconditional surrender and that would involve occupation of the Japanese homeland. This is the story Operation Downfall, the plan to invade and occupy Japan that would dwarf the D-Day landings in Europe. According to the plan, on X-Day--November 1, 1945--General MacArthur would lead an invasion force onto the beaches of Kyushu, the southern most of the Japanese Islands. Y-Day would follow six months later when the largest beach landing in military history would take Tokyo. Politicians and military strategists knew that Japanese resistance would be ferocious. Plans for the invasioncontinued throughout 1945 until President Truman made the decision to drop the atom bomb. We trace the invasion plans from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and analyze why Truman chose the bomb over Operation Downfall.

The 1938 Munich Agreement, by which Britain and France gave Hitler the go-ahead to take over the Sudetenland, stands as one of the more shameful episodes leading to World War II. Nothing in ''The Peace of Paper'' is designed to change that estimate, but it helps us to understand the play of forces behind what is called here ''a symbol of diplomatic naivete and military weakness.'' The sober narrative of Robert Kee, dramatic newsreel footage and the recollections of Czechoslovaks, Britons, Germans and others capture the tragic dimensions of Munich