Why We Fight
Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the war, but US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered distribution for public viewing.
This article is about the World War II documentary film series. For other uses, see Why We Fight (disambiguation).Why We Fight
Frank Capra
- Walter Huston
- Anthony Veiller
- U.S. Army Pictorial Service[a]
- United States Army Signal Corps
417 minutes (7 films)
United States
English
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Frank Capra, daunted but impressed and challenged by Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will, worked in direct response. The series faced various challenges, such as convincing a noninterventionist nation to get involved in the war and to become an ally of the Soviet Union. Many entries feature Axis powers' propaganda footage from up to 20 years earlier, recontextualized to promote the Allies.
Although primarily edited by William Hornbeck, some parts were re-enacted "under War Department supervision" if no relevant footage was available. Animated segments were produced by Walt Disney Productions, and the animated maps followed a convention of depicting Axis-occupied territory in black.
Accuracy[edit]
Prelude to War and The Battle of China refer to the Tanaka Memorial several times by portraying it as "Japan's Mein Kampf" in order to raise US morale for a protracted war against Japan. The authenticity of that document is not accepted by scholars today, and it is regarded as an anti-Japanese hoax, but the Tanaka Memorial was widely accepted as authentic in the 1930s and the 1940s because Japanese actions corresponded so closely to its plans.
To justify the Western Allies' help to the Soviet Union, the series omitted many facts which could have cast the Soviets in a negative light, such as the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States and the Winter War. However, it shows the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact being signed and the Soviet invasion of Poland.[13]
Legacy[edit]
Created by the US Army Pictorial Services, the films are in the public domain, and all of them are available for download on the Internet Archive.
In 2000 the US Library of Congress deemed the films "culturally significant" and selected them for preservation in the National Film Registry.[25][26]
Capra was involved in a number of other World War II propaganda films that were not part of the Why We Fight series. He directed or co-directed the following films:
Capra also produced the 43-minute film The Negro Soldier (1944), directed by Stuart Heisler.
Capra also directed, uncredited, the 13-minute 1945 military training film Your Job in Germany, written by Dr. Seuss.