Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1943)

Name: Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1943)
Uploaded: 2026-09-04
Duration: 52 min
Description: The opening chapter of Frank Capra's seven-part U.S. Army series, tracing the rise of fascism from Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria to Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia in order to explain to American recruits why the country could not stay neutral.

Plays here · source: Internet Archive

1943 · 52m · Documentaries

Directed by Frank Capra

public domain

US public domain — US federal government work (WWII War Department production)

The opening chapter of Frank Capra's seven-part U.S. Army series, tracing the rise of fascism from Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria to Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia in order to explain to American recruits why the country could not stay neutral.

Prelude to War was Capra’s answer to Leni Riefenstahl: assigned by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall to explain the war to raw recruits, Capra built much of the film from captured Axis propaganda footage re-cut against itself. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

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