 "Prelude to War" (1942), the first of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" film series (1942–45), urged Americans to remember the date of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, September 18, 1931, "as well as we remember December 7th, 1941, for on that date in 1931, the war we are now fighting began".The symbolism of the date was highlighted in a scene in the 1943 film "Bombardier", in which the leader of a group of airmen walks up to a calendar on the wall, points to the date ("December 7, 1941") and tells his men