The Battle of China (1944). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
The Battle of China
The sixth orientation film: the invasion of 1937, Nanking, the Burma Road, and a Chinese ally the American public knew almost nothing about.
- Year
- 1944
- Made by
- US War Department, Special Services Division
- Directed by
- Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak
- Free to use because
- A work of the United States government — no copyright, anywhere
The note
The most troubled of the seven. It was withdrawn shortly after release over concerns about its accuracy and its handling of the Chinese Nationalist government, then reissued in an altered form. Both its ambition and its problems are audible: this is propaganda straining to compress a decade of a war it did not fully understand. Kept here as the record it is, not as a settled account. Federal work, no copyright.
The Battle of China, 1944. US War Department, Special Services Division. Directed by Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak. This is the film’s soundtrack: narration, score and location sound, streamed from the Internet Archive’s master. No picture — the audio is the work. A work of the United States government, and therefore free of copyright anywhere it is used.
The soundtrack