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Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I was disappointed in this DVD. I expected it to detail the events leading up to WW11, and explain the reasons behind the start of the conflict. Instead, after watching it, I was left none the wiser.There are two main parts to this DVD - one on Germany and the other on Japan. A bonus feature is a series of photographs of Hitler. The story on Germany starts off well, but then falls away. We see Germany after her defeat in WW1 and the chaos that reigned. We then see Hitler's rise to power and his tightening grip on it. The takeovers in the Rhineland and the Sudetenland are glossed over - as is the Munich agreement giving Europe "peace". The non aggression pact with Stalin is only mentioned when we see the German and Soviet troops meeting in Poland. I expected more detail on these events as they were central to the start of the conflict.
The chronological order of events is also misleading - we see France signing the armistice, then in the next scene we witness the British withdrawal at Dunkirk. The story on Japan was woeful. It is entirely on the war in China & Manchuria. It is made up of color movies made well after the war with some original archive black & white footage. The movie footage seems to come from Japanese, Chinese and Russian sources as in different scenes we see the Japanese as heroes fighting for their Emperor, then as evil child killers, to incompetent soldiers thrown back by the mighty red army. The storyline finishes in late 1939 then mentions the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 - what about what happened in the intervening years? I would find it hard to recommend this to anyone.
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