The Battle of China

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The Official World War II US Government account of Chinese defense against Japanese aggression.The Official World War II US Government account of Chinese defense against Japanese aggression.The Official World War II US Government account of Chinese defense against Japanese aggression.

Directors
- Frank Capra
- Anatole Litvak
Writers
- Confucius
- Julius J. Epstein
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

839

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Frank Capra
- Anatole Litvak
Writers
- Confucius
- Julius J. Epstein
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

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Top cast18

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Claire Chennault

Self
(archive footage)

Kai-Shek Chiang

Self
(archive footage)

Madame Chiang

Self
(archive footage)
(as Madame Chiang Kai-shek)

Teh Chu

Self
(archive footage)

Winston Churchill

Self
(archive footage)

Anthony Eden

Self
(archive footage)

William F. Halsey

Self (looks up from desk)
(archive footage)

Hirohito

Self
(archive footage)

Walter Huston

Abraham Lincoln
(voice)

Douglas MacArthur

Self
(archive footage)

William Mayer

Self
(as Col. William Mayer)

Louis Mountbatten

Self
(archive footage)

Puyi

Self
(archive footage)
(as Henry Pu-yi)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Self
(archive footage)
(as Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

Joseph W. Stilwell

Self
(archive footage)

Yat-sen Sun

Self
(archive footage)
(as Dr. Sun Yat Sen)

Gi-ichi Tanaka

Self
(archive footage)
(as Baron Tanaka)

Anthony Veiller

Narrator
(voice)

Directors
- Frank Capra
- Anatole Litvak
Writers
- Confucius
- Julius J. Epstein
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In the year 2000, the United States Library of Congress mandated that this film (and the other six documentaries in the Why We Fight series) were "culturally significant" and selected them for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Goofs
Although the film lionizes the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-Shek, a frequent leitmotif in the film's soundtrack is "The Song of the Volunteers", a Communist marching song that would become the national anthem of the People's Republic of China after Mao Zedong won the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Quotes
Narrator: But what kind of people are the Chinese? Well, in four thousand years of continuous history, China has never fought a war of aggression. They're *that* kind of people.

Alternate versions
A patriotic Australian version includes a brief epilogue exhorting Australians to resist the Japanese.

Connections
Featured in Xie rou chang cheng (1995)

Soundtracks
Isle of the Dead
(uncredited)
Music by Sergei Rachmaninoff

User reviews11

Review

Featured review

7/10

Textbook documentary (propoganda)

This is direct text book documentary propaganda. You could base a documentary class around this.

It is Capra's World War II documentary about China's turmoil with Japan.

Obviously, we were at war with Japan, and allied with China.

Even today, it could fool some people, but most people have seen just how horrific those "marches" were.

Back to back with Russia, China is shown in the film to strategically move everything Westward, away from Japan. Back to back with Russia, they could use industry, relatively safe with their ally, against Japan, because Russia had to do the same with Germany.

The mass migration, the mass deployments, the mass use of labor, all are shown in true propaganda form as being strategic and heroic. Incredibly, these same images are used today to show immense brutality and inhumanity, as we value human life much more today.

In the forties, patriotism and Nationalism were prize feelings, for better or worse.