This program reveals the unorthodox life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, through the use of rare footage from the period. Puyi's story, set against the immense luxury of the Chinese nobility, the decadent 1930s in Tianjin, the upheaval of World War II, the bleakness of prison, plus the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, reflects the turbulent history of China and its people during the early and middle 20th Century.

This short film examines the Japan that emerged at the beginning of the 1900s and was firmly established as an industrialized nation by the outbreak of World War II. Facing the greatest threat in their history, the democracies of the Pacific took careful stock of this new Japan and its strength, and erected a vast system of defence across the world's greatest ocean.