The Chinese army fights to hold off Japanese invaders during World War II.

Using maps, cartoons and film footage, this Army orientation film documents the history of the Chinese people and the invasion of China by the Japanese. The cultures of China and Japan are compared, and aspects of China's pacifist history, and the buildup of the military in Japan are highlighted. Japan is determined to fulfill the tenets of the Tanaka Memorial: world conquest. Phase one of Japan's plan for world conquest starts with the invasion of China. Various invasions are shown, including the conquests of Manchuria in 1931, Shanghai in 1931 and 1937, and Jehol. Graphic scenes of bombing, death and mutiliation accompany the footage of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, during which 40,000 men, women and children died. China finally unites its disparate states in a desire to resist the Japanese, and develops a plan to yield territory slowly to create time in which to build up their forces. Thirty million people dismantle the cities and travel by boat, train and on foot two thousand miles to Chungking, where a new capital is established. Factories are built underground to protect them from bombs, and a trucking route known as the Burma Road over which the Chinese receive invaluable supplies, is built by manual labor into the mountains. A people's army is formed, and their troops are fortified with troops from the United States, Great Britain and Holland. With the rest of the world also busy at war, Japan decides to immobilize U.S. power in the Pacific, and without warning launches an attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941. This brings the U.S. into the war, and the country joins forces with China to defeat Japan. Even with many countries involved, China suffers more defeats by Japan, but at the outset of 1944, the Chinese are stronger than ever, and with them, the U.S. forces are fighting for freedom all over the world.