Historic Espionage & National Security Films

Purchase on DVD
Historic Espionage & National Security Films

Classic national defense & espionage films collection. Includes U.S. Military films as well as pro Japanese interment propaganda films from WWII.

Included Films:

Challenge To Democracy

Produced: 1944

Length: 18 Minutes

More than 100,000 men, women, and children all of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes in the pacific coast states to war time communities established in out of way places. Contrary to the military presence and the barbed wire, internment of these innocent American citizens was not forced, or so states the film. An attempt for the United States government to justify moving thousands of people illegally during the start of the Second World War with fear of an invasion by Japan after Pearl Harbor the U.S. government rounded up people of Japanese ethnicity and shipped them off to camps where they could keep a safe eye on them, not just for all Americas sake but for the safety of those people. With their things put in storage ad lives turned upside down, Challenge to Democracy, states they were merely dislocated people, an unwounded casualties of war. But at what cost to freedom and democracy? The film serves as an excellent demonstration of propaganda and shows one nations attempt to hide their hypocrisies, as they simultaneously fight against tyrannical ideas on the shores of Europe, while embrassign them on their own soil.

Newsreel: 12 Men Accused of Being Communist Party Members

Produced: 1948

Length: 1 Minutes

12 Men are accused and charged with being members of the Communist Party and trying to overthrow the U.S. government.

Subversion and Espionage Directed Against The Military

Produced: 1950s

Length: 9 Minutes

This Cold War video was made to train soldiers and government workers about the vital importance of keeping classified government information safe in a time where there are many countries trying to obtain it through clandestine activities. The Russians are after us! This was the common mentality during the Cold War. As the film will explain, there are many ways in which other countries try to steal important secret information and these agents are very sophisticated in their activities. Befriending an American official is one tactic. In order to obtain information but in order for this to not occur people must remain vigilant. The film makes public safety paramount, and insists on a unified American front when it comes to intelligence. It makes for a funky viewing of a different time when Americans had radically different concerns than they do today.

Japanese Relocation

Produced: 1943

Length: 9 Minutes

This controversial film attempts to defend the highly unconstitutional actions of the United States War Relocation Authority during World War II. Milton S. Eisenhower, director of the WRA, narrates the story of how 100,000 Japanese people, two thirds of them American citizens, were forced into internment camps in order to prevent espionage during the war. Falsely, the film presents the Japanese as willing and happy to sacrifice for the war effort, Japanese themselves cheerfully handled the enormous paperwork involved. The forcible auctioning of their personal property, including houses, businesses, family valuables, and vehicles, is whitewashed as well, with the narrator saying relocation often involved financial sacrifice for the evacuees, who cooperated wholeheartedly. Instead of camps, the film refers to assembly centers located in race tracks, fair grounds, and other public areas. The camps are shown in some detail, including the medical facilities, Americanization classes, cafeteria, irrigation projects, and field work in sugar beet farms. In all, this is a fascinating, but sad look at a dark time in our nations history.

My Japan

Produced: 1945

Length: 16 Minutes

This violent, racist, and inflammatory WWII propaganda film was made in order to sell war bonds, but also to cement the Japanese into the minds of the American public as inhuman monsters who would fight until their last man, woman and child were dead, rather than accept defeat. A caucasian actor made to look Japanese narrates and shows captured war footage to the American audience in an attempt to make the viewer feel as though they are privy to Japanese secrets and motivations instead of American military propaganda. He starts the film out by saying, So, you are the enemy? He goes on to taunt the viewer by insulting Americans, The methods you propose amuse us. You say you can destroy us by starving us out. You forget that we are not like you. We have no soft bellies crying for beefsteaks and butter and candy. You say you can destroy us by making sacrifices. How we suffer when you do not have a full tank of gasoline…How we tremble when you have to wait to get into movies, restaurants, nightclubs. Sacrifices? What a delightful and foolish sense of humor you have. He depicts the Japanese as soulless automatons who work sixteen hour days and then go home and eat Chinese babies for dinner. This film not only spurs Americans to buy war bonds, it also seems to have a much darker purpose, that of preparing the American public for the concept of total war against Japan. It shows intensely violent war atrocities committed by the Japanese, including dead men, women, and children, executions, beheadings, and other highly graphic footage. It depicts the Japanese as a people willing to do anything in order to achieve world domination – a people that couldnt be stopped with the normal processes of war such as bombings, blockades, and ground battles. This horrifying film is important to preserve so that future generations will know of the hateful racism that used to be commonly accepted throughout the world.

Our Enemy: The Japanese

Produced: 1943

Length: 19 Minutes

This intensely racist World War II propaganda film aims at showing the public how different and inhuman the Japanese are from Americans. Setting Japanese people up as the hated other was easy for Joseph C. Grew, former ambassador to Japan, who narrates the film. I can testify that they are as different from ourselves as any people on this planet. The real difference is in their minds. You cannot measure Japanese sense of logic by any Western yardstick. Their weapons are modern; their thinking 2000 years out of date. He describes them as a people who are brought up from infancy in a warlike culture that trains them to believe that it is their God-given right to rule the world, and they will fanatically fight to the death in order to achieve it. As he gives this running racist commentary, inflammatory and often misleading scenes of Japanese life roll by. Children are shown doing calisthenics, soldiers are shown marching, Emperor Hirohito sits his horse, people perform Shinto worship, and Japanese soldiers commit grisly war atrocities. This film is American war propaganda at its worst and most prejudiced.

Safeguarding Military Information

Produced: 1941

Length: 11 Minutes

Safeguarding Military Information warns soldiers and defense workers about carelessly giving away military secrets to family, friends, or spies. A soldier tries to explain to his girlfriend that he is going to be unavailable for a while without being too specific. She pesters him, however, and he gives in and tells her sensitive information. Later, he loses his life because of his carelessness. The film tries to convince the viewer that there are eyes and ears everywhere, and that loose lips can cause sabotage, deaths of soldiers, and loss of military battles, Thoughtlessness breeds sabotage. Another soldier is approached by a suspiciously curious man at a bowling alley, and apparently does the right thing by reporting him to a superior officer. Walter Huston and Eddie Bracken are featured in this well made film.