This documentary in two parts describes the role of Japan during the Second World War. Part one concentrates upon the fifteen years of war, which began for Japan already in 1931 with the occupation of Manchuria and ended after the dropping of the two atomic bombs. Further important events in the course of the war were the massacre of Nanking in 1937, tha attack on Pearl Harbour 1941, the fall of Singapur 1942, the repeated bombings of Tokyo and finally the atomic bombs dropped over Nagasaki and Hiroshima three weeks before Japan's capitulation. This capitulation was signed on 2 September 1945 on the battleship "USS Missouri".

The second part of the documentary describes the time after the war, which was a truly difficult time of reconstruction in Japan. An American military government was put into force, the years of war were repressed systematically, millions of people returned from the occupied regions - there was chaos, destruction and poverty.