Far East Command

By early 1942 the Allies had suffered a series of devastating defeats in the Far East, including the loss of Singapore and the first attack on the Australian mainland. This film captures the urgency of the crisis, mixing images of warfare and domestic life, to show soldiers, factory workers, farmers and schoolchildren, in Malaya, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, giving British and American audiences a panoramic view of events on the other side of the world.

This March of Time film pulls no punches in its analysis of the task facing the allies in the Far East but in its mixture of domestic footage and images from the battlefield presents a nuanced picture of the situation and covers an impressive range of territory and subject matter in its seventeen minutes. Using maps to show its audience the strategic importance of the region, the film conveys a sense of the Japanese threat without resorting to crude propaganda. The film’s reference to the United Nations would have been the first time many people in the audience had heard the term, which was derived from the ‘Declaration by United Nations’ on 1 Jan 1942 and led directly to the founding of the Supreme Far East Command.