The effects of World War II had far-reaching implications for most of the world. Many millions of lives had been lost as a result of the war. Germany was divided into four quadrants, which were controlled by the Allied Powers — the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union — and itself was one of the survivors. World War II is often viewed as the last good war. In contrast to the wars that followed it — Korea and Vietnam, primarily World War II is said to have had a clear purpose: The smashing of Nazism and fascism and all the horrible things for which they stood. Unfortunately, history is not so simple, and the consequences of World War II are much more complex. A full accounting is a sobering matter that renders the record less decisive so far as freedom and truth are concerned. This is not to imply that the defeat of Nazism and fascism was not a good thing, but only to indicate that even a war with such an outcome can have bad consequences. Immediate effects:- At the end of the war, millions of people were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Soviet Union had been heavily affected, with 30% of its economy destroyed. (1)Soviet Union: The losses suffered by the Soviet Union in the war against Germany were enormous. Total demographic population loss was about 40 million people, of which 8.7 million were combat deaths.[10] The non-military deaths of approximately 19 million included deaths by starvation in the siege of Leningrad; deaths in German prisons and concentration camps; deaths from mass shootings of civilians; deaths of labourers in German industry; deaths from famine and disease; deaths in Soviet camps Although the Soviet Union was victorious in World War II, its economy had been devastated. Roughly a quarter of the country's capital resources were destroyed, and industrial and agricultural output in 1945 fell far short of prewar levels. (2)Germany: [Partition]In the west, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, and by declaring Germany to be the territory it had contained within its boundaries of December 31, 1937, the Sudetenland was reverted back to Czechoslovakia.In addition, close to 1/4 of pre-war (1937) Germany was de-facto annexed by the Allies, the surviving roughly Germans were either expelled from or refused to return to their homes. The remainder of Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, coordinated by the Allied Control Council. [Reparation]Germany paid reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union mainly in the form of dismantled factories, forced labor, and coal. [Aid]US policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 had been that no help should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation, save for the minimum required to mitigate starvation. The Allies' immediate post-war "industrial disarmament" plan for Germany had been to destroy Germany's capability to wage war by complete or partial de-industrialization. After the German surrender, the International Red Cross was prohibited from providing aid such as food or visiting POW camps for Germans inside Germany. On February 4, 1946, the Red Cross was permitted to visit and assist prisoners also in the U.S. Occupation zone of Germany, although only with very small quantities of food. (3)Japan: After the War the Allies rescinded Japanese pre-war annexations such as Manchuria, and Korea became independent.
