All language subtitles for american in color the 1940s

this is the story of America

seen in color for the first time

the 1940s the battle lines are drawn

in a world torn apart by war

America remains uncommitted

it's not our fights as Charles Lindberg

but we cannot win this war for England

regardless of how much assistance we send

but President Franklin Roosevelt disagrees

we must be the great arsenal of democracy

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor settled the argument

I do but the war also unleashes a dark undercurrent

of fear and prejudice

and as a victorious America assumes its new role

as a military and economic juggernaut

post war discontents simmers at home and abroad

this is the story of the 1940s

as you've never seen it before

I want us to recapture that

New York April 23rd, 1941

at the Manhattan Center

hundreds attend a rally tonight

speaker is a famed aviator and American hero

Charles Lindbergh

Lindbergh is a Nazi sympathizer

avid opponent

of US involvement in the overseas conflict

France has now been defeated

and despite the propaganda

and confusion of recent months

it is now obvious that England is losing war I believe

the call is to abandon America's friend and ally

and I have been forced to the conclusion

that we cannot win this war for England

regardless of how much assistance we send

that is why the America First Committee has been formed

Lindbergh and the National America First Committee

rail against any involvement in the war

hundreds of thousands of citizens agreed

including future President John F

Kennedy who sends a check for $100

since the war began in 1939

Americans have seen and heard

about the devastation in Europe

Adolf Hitler's all out attack on Poland

makes the long dreaded European war a certain

but many are convinced that stopping Adolf Hitler

is not worth the sacrifice of American lives

this time America should keep out

and I know I will

I'm the smartest guy here of European affairs

I think we should stay out of this entirely

and all our efforts should be made

to keep out of the fight of your fight

of our battles

they mean nothing to us

some Americans publicly admire the Nazis

and envision the fascist America

in February 1939

some 20,000 American Nazis rally

in Madison Square Garden

but on the West Coast

the war in Europe seems very far away

San Francisco

Japanese American Dave Tatsuno

films everyday life in his community

and as a president of the local

Japanese American Citizens League

Dave films its national convention

the league encourages the American born children

of Japanese immigrants or Nisay

to become politically active

Dave and his wife Alice

work in the family haberdasherry store

in the heart of Japan Town

it's called Niche Bay Basan

or Japanese American department store

but otherwise they lead typical American lives

like this family visit to Yosemite National Park

and Dave's latest purchase a new Ford coupe

with Germany already at war

and growing Japanese aggression in Asia

they carry on enjoying their prosperity

in June 1940 France falls to the Nazis

Britain now desperate holds on

President Roosevelt is convinced

that America must join the effort to stop Hitler

he begins the daunting task

of preparing his nation for war

on September 2nd, 1940

the Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park

he calls for a huge military buildup

we must prepare before him

well a simple reason that repairing later may

and probably would be late

I asked this Congress

as a first step

Roosevelt urges the democratic majority in Congress

to enact a military draft

the first peace time draft in US history

all men between ages 21 and 36 receive a number

to the United States of America

is not my thing I do I do

all the numbers are put in a glass vessel and stirred

then a blindfolded secretary of War

Henry Stimson draws the first number

the first number is serial No. 1 fifty eight

it's held by 6,175 men across the country

the draft Spurs protests

and leading the resistance

spokesperson Charles Lindbergh

where is freedom if four fifth of a nation

can be carried to war against this will

but Roosevelt challenges his critics

he gambles that despite the draft

he can win an unprecedented third term as president

no other president has

ever served longer than eight years

but there's nothing in the Constitution that prohibits

it in Elwood Indiana

Roosevelt's opponent

Wendell Wilkie

accuses FTR of disrespecting American history

for a crowd of 150,000 people

and I would also like to debate the question

of the Assumption by this president

in seeking a third term

of a greater public confidence

than was accorded to our presidential giant

Washington Jefferson

Jackson Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson

but Roosevelt believes that his experience

is vital to America's safety

that it trumps the two term tradition

he runs under the slogan

better a third termer than a 3rd raider

in November 1940 FDR carries 38 states the rookies 10

in a crushing victory

he immediately escalates military production

America needs to step up the pace

if Britain is to stand a chance against Hitler

people of Europe who are defending themselves

do not ask us to do their fighting

they ask us for the implements of war

the flames tanks

the gun freighters

which will enable them to fight for their liberty

and our security

we must be the great awesome of democracy

the boom and military spending

finally puts an end to the Great Depression

millions can now find jobs

the Navy nearly doubles in size

with 200 new ships under construction

in June 1941 Ford opens Willow Run

an aircraft production facility in Belleville

Michigan that's a mile long

at 3.5 million square feet and employing 42,000 workers

is the largest factory in the world

it is designed to manufacture

the new B24 Liberator bomber

in 1941 the US builds 19,000 aircraft

more than triple the number made in 1940

while several thousand go to the allies

the vast majority is used to reequip the US military

there is little doubt at this point

that America is on the path to war

on September 11th, 1941

Charles Lindbergh attacks FDR directly

only the audio of his speech survives

the Roosevelt administration

is the third powerful group

which has been touring this country toward war

if any of these groups

the British

the Jewish or the administration

stop targeting for war

I believe there will be little dangers

of our involvement

but as American factories build up to prepare for war

workers rebel

in June 1941

a strike breaks out over low wages

at the North American Aviation Plant in Los Angeles

the plant produces some 20% of US military aircraft

the strike turns violent

when the LAPD tries to break through a picket line

manned by some 4,000 workers

FDR cannot afford delays

on June 9th

he orders the army to seize the factory

and force it to resume production

Roosevelt braces the nation for war

it's coming far sooner than you can imagine

Thursday November 27th, 1941 Thanksgiving

the president is enjoying his Turkey in Warm Springs

Georgia as part of his March of Dimes

polio charity event

but FDR is anxious about Japan's expansion

in Asia and the Pacific

on boy Sabuto Karasu

arrives in Washington to reassure the president

you all know how difficult my mission is

but I'll do all I can to make it a successful one

for the take of two countries

the bad and the United States

in Hawaii Fox movie tone cameraman Al Brick

spends his Thanksgiving on special assignment

with the Pacific Fleet

what is now its main base

Pearl Harbor

for the past nine months

he's been filming maneuvers with the USS Arizona

on December 7th

I'll break is up early filming

353 Japanese fighters and bombers

descend on Pearl Harbor

the Arizona's forward magazine

filled with 100 tons of gunpowder takes a direct hit

1,177 men are killed

brick continues to film from a small boat

18 American ships are sunk or run aground

sailors from the USS Oklahoma

stand on her upturned hull

429 of her crew are dead

the US Pacific Fleet is decimated

Rick captures the scoop of his career

but the government seizes his footage

and embargoes it for a year

officials fear its release could harm national security

the day after the attack

Roosevelt addresses Congress and the nation

yesterday December 7th, 1941

a date which will live in infamy

United States of America

was suddenly and deliberately attacked

30 million homes tune into the news

I ask that the Congress declare a state of war

has existed

between the United States and the Japanese Empire

in San Francisco Dave Tatsuno films the headline

amidst growing fears for the safety of his family

the nation mobilizes this is now America's war

Pearl Harbor has put an end to isolationism

America first disbands

FDR denies Lindbergh's request

for a commission in the Air Force

and instead of waiting to be drafted

hundreds of thousands volunteer

Doctor Daniel Cavadas from Oklahoma

joins the medical corps a dentist

his first posting is Luzon in the Philippines

he films this rare footage

he's part of America's response

to Japan's dominance in the Pacific

the Japanese occupation of Indonesia

has cut off American access to rubber

central to the manufacturer of jeeps

trucks and planes

so on the home front

Americans launch a nationwide drive for scrap materials

Roosevelt calls on his fellow citizens

to dig deep and donate

one thing you can be sure

we are going to see to it that there's enough rubber

to build the planes to bomb Tokyo and Berlin

enough rubber to win this war

the public responds by holding out

used car and bicycle tires

although some donors seem bewildered by the process

Walt Disney even donates Bambi

but can't bring himself to wield the hammer

raising money becomes a patriotic duty

war bonds infuse the government with badly needed cash

to be paid back later with interest

rallies like this one in Washington

DC are designed to boost bomb sales

yes the parade on Pennsylvania Avenue

is a pageant of patriotism

Bing Crosby in a scout car

Jimmy Cagney

and how that crowd lines up

to buy bonds from their favorites

they buy knowing that every dollar invested

help send more planes

tanks and ships to the United Nations

film icon Carol Lombard visits Indiana

on January 15th, 1942

she raises $2 million in one night

the duty of each and all of us

degrees to contribute every ounce of energy

and every dollar that was impossibly spare

the switches of defense farm

which will carry us to victory

but the scream legend never makes it home

her flight to Los Angeles crashes into a mountain

30 miles from Las Vegas

the safety beacons that direct night flights

were turned off in fear of Japanese bombers

rescue teams film the aftermath

of the 22 on board there are no survivors

the government declares Lombard

the first female casualty of the war

the strong husband

Clark Gable enlists in the US Army Air Force

the President

United States and the others

the officers appointed over you

according to law and articles of war

so help your god I do

gable joins the 300 and fifty

first Heavy Bombardment Group

his primary job

to make films for the military

he narrates this film that highlights the diversity

of the 200,000 men being drafted every month

sergeant Philip J Halls

top turret gunner from Springfield Missouri

sergeant Kenneth L

Halls ball turret gunner from Perkins

Oklahoma related no

they think they might have been several generations ago

back in Germany

meet their pilot

lieutenant Theodore Archeropoulos of Redding California

Archer's brother is in the Air Corps too

their dad was born in Greece

sergeant Paul J Pasty

Paul Terry Cutter

his dad came from Italy

here's sergeant Tim Touchet

tail cutter from Mariana Lake New Mexico

on the reservation they named him Aki

that means boy in Navajo

Uncle Sam's boy too

the message is clear

no matter where your family is from

you are an American first

unless of course

you are an African American

the 1 million blacks in the military

are forced into separate units

and if you're a Japanese American

your very freedom may soon be at risk

in San Francisco in the summer of 1942

Japanese American Dave Tatsuno his wife Alice

the two boys and his father prepare to leave home

despite their smiles for the camera

they are not going of their own free will

in February

President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9 0 6 6

it allows Japanese Americans

to be forced from their homes

and sent to internment camps

they're suspected of disloyalty to America

seen as potential spies and saboteurs

some 120,000 are rounded up

their homes are seized their business is closed

allowed to take little with them

they have to sell their possessions quickly and cheaper

government buses and trains

transport them to internment camps

in September 1942

Dave and Alice arrived just outside the town of Delta

Utah the Camp Topaz

690 miles from their home

they will share a Topaz

with around 8,000 other internees

it is one of 10 internment centers

scattered across the western US

and as far east as Arkansas

officially they can leave

but with no homes

unable to work

and children banned from schools outside the camp

they have no choice but to stay

one room barracks now house families

of up to seven people

Dave smuggles his movie camera inside the camp

and records life behind the fence

he films the internees

forced to construct their own prison

outside the nation is busy

people giving all they've got for the war effort

Roosevelt's plan is to outproduce the enemy

and American industry rises to the challenge

in the first five months of 1943

America builds more merchant ships

than Japan manages during the entire war

in the same year the US builds 86,000 aircraft

twice the combined output of Germany and Japan

in April Henry Ford's Willow Run factory

is building five B24 Liberators

every single day

the plant runs 24 7 production never stops

this unprecedented industrial expansion

requires an army of new workers

so families pick up and move to where the jobs are

to places like Mobile Alabama

a hub of ship building in 1943

its population mushrooms from 80,000 to over 200,000

homes are scarce

many workers

end up living in vast trailer parks and tents

the war effort breaks down social barriers

African Americans

are reluctantly accepted on assembly lines

older men who retired are encouraged to return to work

women join them

when it first opened Willow Run employed 28 women

by 1943 there are over 15,000

across the country

6 million women are working for the first time

they are the face of the war effort forever

epitomized by this poster by Pittsburgh artist J

Howard Miller

she later becomes known as Rosie the Riveter

celebrities endorse the new image of a working woman

Hollywood actress Veronica Lake's long hair

covering one eye is a wildly popular style

but dangerous on the production line

she takes one for the team

and promotes a sensible new look

Miss Lake has now decided to put glamour in its proper

wartime place

and face the world with both eyes in the clear

but turning out the tanks

guns and planes won't be enough to end this war

in April 1943

physicist Hugh Bradner arrives in Los Alamos New Mexico

he and 5,000 others

will work on the top secret Manhattan Project

leading it is the brilliant physicist

Robert Oppenheimer

his hand picked some of the world's greatest minds

to gather in the desert

they're in a desperate race

to build a weapon of unprecedented power

an atomic bomb

before the Nazis do

the project is so secret

that numbers replace names on driver's licenses

guard towers with arm patrols protect the camp

the bomb is codenamed Trinity

but will later be remembered

as the deadliest weapon in history

but the army allows one exception to the tight security

Q Bradner is allowed to shoot home movies

this is the only footage ever shot

of life inside Los Alamos

he captures work in the labs

but is forbidden to film

specific details of the bomb's development

including his own work on the trigger mechanism

instead Bradner focuses on the close knit community

with only Sundays off Saturday nights are party nights

Bradner marries Marjorie Hall

who works at the base as a secretary

they spend the first two years of their lives together

working on the world's biggest secret

for a wartime couple this is rare

most end up separated for long periods of time

hundreds of miles away in Camp Topaz Utah

Alice Tatsuno is pregnant

and celebrating her 31st birthday

the tatsunos have been incarcerated for two years

and have no idea when or if they'll be released

the Nazis are being pushed back across Europe

but the war against the Japanese

still hangs in the balance

November 1944 President Roosevelt now 62

resoundingly wins a fourth turn

on January 20th, 1945

friends and family gather in the Washington snow

for his inauguration

disabled veterans are among the 7,000 guests

invited to the White House to celebrate

but Roosevelt is in increasingly poor health

solemnly swear

I will faithfully execute the promise of

president of the United States

and will to the best of my ability preserve

protect and defend Constitution of the United States

I will help you god

go help me god

three months later he succumbs to a stroke

his body is carried from Georgia back to Washington

DC for the funeral

he will never see

the victory he fought so hard to achieve

in may just weeks after FTR's death

Nazi Germany collapses

the new President Harry S Truman bows to crush Japan

our demand has been and it remains

unconditional surrender

Truman will soon face the biggest decision ever made

by US President as Japan vows to fight to the death

July 16th, 1945 New Mexico

Years of top secret work

are about to be put to the test

Physicist Hugh Bradner films scientists on their way

to the very first test of their deadly creation

the atom bomb

the explosive core made from plutonium

arrives in a Ford sedan

an army camera films the core being inserted

finally the bomb codename Trinity

is winched up 100 feet ready for the drop

some five miles away Robert Oppenheimer

leader of the Manhattan Project nervously waits

even bets a colleague $10 that it won't work

5:00am The Moment of truth

Physicist Joe Mckibben detonates Trinity

in an instant humanity enters the nuclear age

Truman orders two atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan

on August 6th and ninth

the devastation stuns the world

and brings an end to World War two

on September 2nd, 1945

general Douglas MacArthur boards the battleship

USS Missouri

I now invite the representatives

of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government

on the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters

the sign the instrument of surrender

at the places indicated

Foreign Minister Mamoro Shigemitsu

signs marking the total defeat of Japan

let us pray that peace

and that god will preserve it always

Americans everywhere go one

scenes like these in North Plata

Nebraska are repeated all over the country

in just four years

America has shed its isolationist skin

and emerged a global military superpower

in October 1945 in Utah

Camp Topaz closes

other internment camps soon follow

120,000 Japanese Americans

return to their homes across the country

Dave Tatsuno films the family's return to San Francisco

where he reopens their store

on the corner of post in Buchanan

after three years behind barbed wire

they are eager to live in freedom

12 million American troops become civilians again

ready to work and start families

the GI Bill of rights passed in 1944

provides veterans with physical rehabilitation

low cost mortgages and subsidize education

America enters a new era

the veterans see a bright future focused on the family

the birth rate surges

creating a generation that would come to be known

as the baby booms

but the economy fueled by war

now faces a tough transition

in 1946 military spending falls by half

from 900 billion to 450 billion dollars

factories switch over from military

to peacetime production

many people are laid off

flooding a marketplace already swollen with ex soldiers

during the war American workers pledge not to strike

but now squeezed by low wages and high prices

labor is ready to flex its muscles once again

in May 1946 250,000 railway workers strike

paralyzing transportation across the country

in a speech to Congress

President Truman threatens to bring in the military

as I stated last night

unless the railroads are manned by returning strikers

I shall immediately undertake to run them

by the army of the United States

Truman has passed a note

word has just been received

that the rail strike has been settled

on terms proposed by the president

Truman's strategy works on the railways

but the crisis deepens

as other unions take to the picket lines

in the biggest wave of strikes ever seen

5 million workers

from movie cruise to coal miners walk out

members of Congress demand that something be done

to curb the union's ability to disrupt the economy

in 1947 Congress passes the Taft Hartley Act

which puts limits on when unions can strike

Truman Beatles the Bill but Congress overrides him

American unions will never be the same

the strike ends

but it's a political defeat for Truman

this battle will not be his last

he will soon be tested

by a fiery conflict over civil rights

April 5th, 1947 The Mayflower Hotel Washington

President Truman has an upbeat message to deliver

I am happy to be able to say tonight

that for the present fiscal year

nineteen hundred and forty seven

we shall balance the budget and we shall have a surplus

America has recovered from its post war slump

people are earning more and willing to spend more

and with an end to gas rationing

highways are buzzing with cars

Americans are on the move

in Nevada's Mojave Desert

the small town of Las Vegas is dreaming big

it boasts a population of just 20,000

and it's a long drive from LA

but it has irresistible draws

like speedy weddings and divorces and above all

legalize gambling

Las Vegas becomes a top vacation destination

for a burgeoning middle class

The Last Frontier and El Rancho

are the first resorts to line the now famous strip

but it's the flamingo that comes to define Las Vegas

as a Mecca for forbidden pleasures

mob boss Bugsy Siegel opens it on December 26th, 1946

it's the city's first modern hotel and casino

the 105 room

six million dollar property

is inspired by Hollywood glamour

and it's marketed

as a luxury resort for the rich and famous

at first the flamingo flops

and a 300,000 dollar loss

leads the mob to order a hit on Bugsy Seagull

but the flamingo soon sets the tone

for the glittering Vegas we know today

in 1948 America is beginning to react to a

new threat communism

the Marshall Plan is helping rebuild Western Europe

with over $12 billion in a

while in the East

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is tightening his grip

and expanding

military is one weapon

propaganda is another

the Soviets chastise America

for its poor treatment of blacks

Truman confronts the problem head on

vowing to dismantle the Jim Crow laws

that enforce discrimination

he becomes the first president to address the National

Association for the advancement of Colored People

there is no justifiable reason for discrimination

because of ancestry

our religion

our race our color

but the democratic president's courageous stand

exacts a price

Southern Democrats

determined to preserve segregation

quit the party

the president's popularity plummets

to keep his job

he must find a way to win the 1948 election

in June the Republican Party nominates

Truman's opponent

Thomas E Dewey

first ever televised convention

Dewey a popular New York governor

is confident of victory

Truman dives into a campaign

that few believe he can win

in the closing weeks

American movie houses feature

the candidates campaign films

Dewey's is slick with high production values

though it was in New York the Dewey rose to fame

he is the brother to the small town in the Middle West

in the same neighborhood where Tom grew up

his mother lives today

and like all mothers

is proud of her son and his achievement

you certainly must be proud of Tom well yes

I think Oliver Russell is happy over his success

and I do know that he will always have

the best interest of our country at heart

Truman's effort is the complete opposite

a patchwork of News

Republic to his achievements in office

1945 Harry S

Truman took the momentous oath of office

earlier Mr Truman succeeded in pushing through

a veteran's low cost housing Bill

but it's a fact

is powerful

he looks like a leader

confident president

who signs treaties and makes decisions

no president in American history has ever been faced

with the tremendous foreign problems

that confront Harry Truman

on Election Day November 2nd, 1948

Truman travels to his hometown of Independence

Missouri to cast his vote

the final tally shocks everyone except Truman

he wins more than 2 million more votes than Dewey

carries 28 states

but the Chicago Tribune

decides to go to press before voting

polls close

its headline gives Truman the last laugh

in his state of the union address on January 5th, 1949

Truman announces a sweeping program he calls

the Fair Deal

to deliver the American Dream for all

inspired by FTR's New Deal

it's an ambitious vision of government

helping people to lead better lives

slums are torn down

to be replaced by public housing projects

government planners envision a future of regenerated

modern cities

whole new neighborhoods are designed

to deliver the benefits of modern living

to even the neediest families

where a man and his family with a small income

can live with comfort and dignity

whether a playground is

space for the kids to stretch their growing limbs

right outside the front door

where shops and stores are a planned part of the city

within the city

Christmas 1948

Army dentist Doctor Daniel Cavadas

films his family at home on Percival Road in Columbia

South Carolina

the abundance of presence beneath the tree

a hallmark of American athletes

during the 1940s

the nation experienced an economic boom

that ushered in a golden age

it is one the greatest war in history

and transformed itself into a global superpower

The 1940s are considered by many

to be the decade that define the American century