Historical Online Videos Show Japan during WWII
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Posted: 09:44 AM JST
Google has teamed up with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the US to make historical videos available on the internet. The non-exclusive agreement enables researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives for free. There are a few gems showing events related to Japan.
One shows the first elections after the end of WII, with a clip of General MacArthur appealing to the nations of the world to follow Japan's example and abolish war.
Another documents the signing of Japan's surrender on the Missouri in September 1945.
A 1945 US documentary recounts the allied fight against Japan, starting with Japan's invasion of China and ending with victory celebrations on New York's Times Square.
"This is an important step for the National Archives to achieve its goal of becoming an archives without walls," said Professor Weinstein. "Our new strategic plan emphasizes the importance of providing access to records anytime, anywhere. This is one of many initiatives that we are launching to make our goal a reality. For the first time, the public will be able to view this collection of rare and unusual films on the Internet."
"Today, we've begun to make the extraordinary historic films of the National Archives available to the world for the first time online," said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of technology at Google. "Students and researchers whether in San Francisco or Bangladesh can watch remarkable video such as World War II newsreels and the story of Apollo 11 - the historic first landing on the Moon."
The pilot program undertaken by the National Archives and Google features 101 films from the audiovisual collections preserved at the Archives.
See all Japan related historical videos at Google Video.
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