Germany
Division of Germany after WW II
Germany was utterly devastated after the war. Allied fighter jets carpet bombed cities, killing many, including civilians. Many were forced to fight to defend nation, leading to high loss of life. The nation was financially destroyed, due to the Nazi's desperate spending to feed the war machine, even down to the final days. Its captors partitioned the nation, tightly controlling all aspects of life in Germany, while also implementing punitive sanctions. The nation was also disgraced due to the atrocities carried out, especially the Holocaust.The reconstruction of Germany was a long process. After World War II, Germany had suffered heavy losses, both in lives and industrial power. 7.5 million Germans had been killed, roughly 11 percent of the population (see also World War II casualties). The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the War and agricultural production was only 35 per cent of what it was before the war. Germany and its citizens basically had to start over from less than nothing and would not be unified again until 1990.
Japan
After the war the Japanese empire was divided up between the United States, U.S.S.R, China. as well as disarmament of its military, the ratifying a new Constitution of Japan that was promulgated as an amendment to the old Prussian-style Meiji Constitution. The political project drew much of its inspiration from the US Bill of Rights, New Deal social legislation, the liberal constitutions of several European states and even the Soviet Union. It transferred sovereignty from the Emperor to the people in an attempt to depoliticize the Throne and reduce it to the status of a state symbol. On December 15, 1945 the Shinto Directive was issued abolishing Shinto as a state religion and prohibiting some of its teachings and rites that were deemed to be militaristic or ultra-nationalistic. On April 10, 1946, an election that gave Japan its first modern prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida. The Labor Standards Act was enacted on 7 April 1947 to improve working conditions in Japan as well as the Japanese first trade union law protecting the rights of workers to form or join a union, to organize and take industrial action. Before and during the war, Japanese education was based on the German system, and universities to train students after primary school. During the occupation, Japan's secondary education system was changed to incorporate three-year junior high schools and senior high schools similar to those in the U.S. Junior high school became compulsory but senior high school remained optional.
1: Japanese archipelago, placed under the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers .
2: Japanese-ruled Taiwan and the Spratley Islands, ceded to the Republic of China
3: Karafuto Prefecture and the Kuril Islands, ceded to the Soviet Union.
4: Japanese-ruled Korea south of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the United States Army Military Government in Korea, granted independence in 1948 as South Korea.
5: Kwantung Leased Territory, occupied by the Soviet Union 1945-1955, returned to China in 1955.
6: Japanese-ruled Korea north of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the Soviet Civil Authority, granted independence in 1948 as North Korea.
7: South Pacific Mandate, occupied by the United States 1945-1947, converted into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947.
Formation of the United Nations
The League of Nations failed to prevent World War II, because of the widespread recognition that humankind could not afford a third world war, the United Nations was established to replace the flawed League of Nations in 1945 in order to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization was begun under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London in January 1946.
Cold War
After the war much of Europe was devastated and destabilized from WWII. In the East the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(U.S.S.R) took advantage of the situation, setting up communist governments in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. They also added the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the Soviet Union. The USSR also keeps the northern part of East Prussia (formerly part of Germany), to give it a badly needed warm-water port in the Baltic Sea. With this gain in territory, the USSR becomes a leading world power, along with the U.S., as it is strengthened while other European powers are weakened. The advancements in Nuclear technology as well as the destruction of most of Europe's industrial capacity lead to the rise of two superpowers, The Soviets and its eventual allies in the Warsaw pact against the the United States and its N.A.T.O allies for the next four decades.