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Digital video - Download File and Streaming -, RT: 112 minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format, b/w & color, bonus footage

Despite profound obstacles, insurmountable odds and constant discrimination, African American soldiers served their country with honor & distinction. This video proudly salutes the men & women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

On January 13,1997, seven African American soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for actions performed during WWII.  These seven honored soldiers have come to symbolize the remarkable contributions of all African Americans who served our country in all our wars.  

Through archival film footage, war veterans from all military branches recount their personal experiences to bring their True Stories to life.  Some of the stories include: Tuskegee Airmen, Women at War, Red Ball Express, Buffalo Soldiers, 761st "Black Panthers" tank battalion, Triple Nickels, 6888th Postal Unit battalion and much more!  

Includes a moving tribute from General Colin Powell and comments from President William Jefferson Clinton.  This historic video is a must for every library.

Extra Features: 

"The Negro Soldier" 

This 1944 classic produced by Frank Capra was the first U.S. Army training to favorably depict African American servicemen. Additional clips include the 1936 Berlin Olympics featuring Gold Medalist Jesse Owens.

"Wings For This Man" US Govt. film honoring the Tuskegee Institute

"Timeline: Black Sports Heroes" (Includes: Negro Baseball League; Satchel  Paige,  Joe  Louis)

Digital video - Download File and Streaming -  RT: 1 hr. 40 minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format,  b/w & color

On one end is the USS Arizona Memorial, a few hundred yards away is the USS Missouri.  These two battleships, at rest in Pearl Harbor, represent the beginning and the end of WWII. 

This video is the historic story of the these two great American battleships - One proudly afloat, the other tragically below the calm waters of the pacific ocean.

Bonus Footage

• MacArthur Returns to the Philippines  
• Bloody Iwo  
• At Japan’s Doorstep: Okinawa

"fascinating documentary..." (rotten tomatoes.com)

"a fitting tribute..." (Video Librarian)

"awesome..." (pearlharborattacked.com)

"dramatically narrated..." (Booklist)

Digital video - Download File and Streaming - RT: Approx. 30 minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format, b/w  & color, free study guide.

​This educational WWII video offers fresh insight into the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The video combines fascinating historical footage and photos with intriguing facts to tell the story of one of America’s most challenging and defining eras with candor and objectivity.

"Why Pearl Harbor?"  begins with the stock market crash of 1929 resulting in worldwide economic crisis and examines the economic and political factors that led to Japan’s  aggression in Asia and eventually to its alliance with Axis Powers  Germany and Italy in pursuit of world domination.

 The program discusses  America’s debate over isolationism versus intervention and traces its  preparations for the possibility of war, including Roosevelt’s signing  of the first peacetime draft. The video then explores the Japan’s  strategy in planning the attack on Pearl Harbor, the stunning precision  and secrecy with which the bombing was carried out, and the errors and  misjudgments by American military that contributed to the attack’s  disastrous impact.

Finally, the program explains how Japan’s strategy  backfired by forcing an outraged America – “a sleeping giant,” in the  words of  Pearl Harbor Japanese strategist Admiral Yamamoto -- into the war,  determined to avenge the devastating attack. 

 FREE STUDY GUIDE

Digital video - Download File and Streaming -, RT30 minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format, b/w  & color, free study guide.

This educational WWII video combines fascinating historical footage and photos with intriguing facts to tell the story of one of America’s most challenging and defining eras with candor and objectivity.

Homefront examines the many ways that America changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States was now in a war it had sought to avoid, and Americans mobilized and sacrificed for the war effort at home.

In response to anti-Japanese hysteria on the West Coast, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans are removed to internment camps. The video examines living conditions in the camps, the impact of internment on these American citizens, and our government’s acknowledgement 40 years later that internment of these citizens was a mistake.

The program explores our country’s efforts at civil defense, including air raid drills and blackouts, as well as the domestic propaganda campaigns orchestrated by the Office of War Information to “sell the war” to citizens. Americans from all walks of life mobilized to man the war plants – men, teenagers, the elderly, and women inspired by Rosie the Riveter.

The program examines how everyday life changed at home with rationing of 20 essential commodities, including meat, sugar, rubber, and gasoline; the planting of victory gardens; and the scrap drives to collect metal, paper, and rubber.

 The video also discusses bond drives and the role celebrities played in selling war bonds, and, finally, the critical roles played by women recruited by the armed services for non-combat duties at home and overseas.

FREE STUDY GUIDE

Digital video - Download File and Streaming - RT: approx. 30 minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format, b/w  & color, free study guide,

This video highlights the contributions that minority men and women made to America’s victory in World War II, despite discrimination in the armed forces and at home. The program points out the irony of racial minorities fighting abroad for democratic ideals that they were not accorded in the military or in their own country.

The video begins with discussion of Benjamin O. Davis, West Point’s first African-American graduate, and efforts to end discrimination in the thriving war industries and in the military prior to America’s entry into the war. Once President Roosevelt declares war,  100,000 African-Americans volunteer for the armed services; they encounter racism in boot camp and are in placed segregated units that are assigned subordinate jobs.

 The program discusses the 99th Pursuit Squadron, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen; the 332nd Fighter Group; Dorie Miller’s heroism at Pearl Harbor; the construction of the Ledo Road and the Alcan Highway; the Red Ball Express; the 6888th Postal Battalion; and the 92nd Infantry Division, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

 The program then explores the contributions of Japanese Americans during the war. After Pearl Harbor, many Japanese Americans wanting to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States volunteer for the armed services. They serve valiantly in the 100th Infantry Battalion, also known as the Nisei Unit; the 442nd Combat Regimental Unit, and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

The video also discusses the critical role the Navajo Code Talkers played in transmitting information about tactics and troop movements in the Pacific Campaign, especially at Iwo Jima. Ira Hayes, a Pima, is one of six marines who raise the American flag in victory, a scene immortalized on film and at the Iwo Jima Memorial.

FREE STUDY GUIDE

Digital video - Download File and Streaming - RT: approx. 30  minutes, General Audiences, NTSC All Regions, 4:3 format, b/w  & color, free study guide.

The Atomic Bomb –The End or the Beginning?  traces the development of atomic bomb, code named the Manhattan Project. The video introduces key players, including Leo Szilard, Albert Einstein, General Leslie Richard Groves, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Dr. Klaus Fuchs. The types of top-secret research conducted at the facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico, are also discussed. The program addresses the development of the B-29 aircraft to carry the bombs nicknamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.”

The video explores the conflicting political opinions over staging a test of the atomic bomb, which is conducted at Alamogordo, New Mexico, code named “Trinity.” President Harry S. Truman waits at the Potsdam Conference in Germany for results and acts swiftly to deploy the new weapon when Japan refuses to surrender.

 The program follows Colonel Paul Tibbets and his crew on their flight in the Enola Gay to drop the first bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the flight of Captain Charles Sweeney and his crew in Bock’s Car three days later to bomb Nagasaki.

The devastation and casualties in both cities are staggering, and the decision to drop the atomic bombs remains controversial. Japan agrees to surrender, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as world powers, and the Cold War begins.

FREE STUDY GUIDE