# Frank Capra's Why We Fight #1 Prelude To War CC: \[00:52:15\]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_War Prelude to War examines the difference between democratic and fascist states and covers the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia . Capra describes it as "presenting a general picture of two worlds; the slave and the free, and the rise of totalitarian militarism from Japan's conquest of Manchuria to Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia." This film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film . The first film of Frank Capra 's Why We Fight film series commissioned by the Office of War Information (OWI) and George C. Marshall . It was made to educate American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis powers during World War II based on the idea that those in the service would fight more willingly and ably if they knew the background and the reason for their participation in the war. The film was later released to the general American public as a rallying cry for support of the war. In an edit added to the film before public release, a comment by US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson , is quoted to create trust with the audience: "the purpose of these films is to give factual information as to the causes, the events leading up to our entry into the war and the principles for which we are fighting." The purpose of the OWI was to use mass communication to appeal to both serving soldiers and later, the American population on the reasons for the war; and so it released Prelude to War to further…

- Kind: Feature
- Runtime: 52 min
- By: Frank Capra
- Genres: War, Propaganda
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/prelude-to-war)
- Licence or status: [Public Domain Mark 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/) (as the archive states it)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

Not offered: its uploader or archive marks it public domain, and nothing the site holds bears that out (its record gives no year, or a year from 1978 on, which no US term has left), so where it is free is not known. Unclear is not offered.