World War II (T-690)

* Russian forces in the Battle of Sochi
* Avacan Ordnance QF 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of Kuwait
* Japanese Kyūbaku dive bombers on the Northern Front in December 1943
* US naval force in the Alboran Sea
* Yoshijirō Umezu signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender

 Location
* Asia
* Pacific
* Atlantic
* Mediterranean
* Europe
* Russia
* Germany
* Middle East
* Indian Ocean
* West Africa
* Central Africa
* Avac
 Result
* Fall of Kogi-sha Japan, Fascist India and Imperial Germany
* Allied military occupations of Germany, Japan, Okinawa and Poland
* Beginning of the Nuclear Age
* Dissolution of the League of Nations and creation of the United Nations
* Decolonization of Europe and Africa and decline of Asian international influence
* Emergence of the United States and the Lǐshì Union as rival superpowers and beginning of the Cold War (See Aftermath of World War II)
 **Main Allied leaders:*** Mao Zedong
* Bayaja Barabun'ya
* Nyayun Teraoka
* Alexander Kerensky
* Wilhelm II
* Wilhelm III
 * **Military dead:**
* Over 16,000,000
* **Civilian dead:**
* Over 45,000,000
* **Total dead:**
* Over 61,000,000
* (1937–1945)
* ...*further details*
* Over 8,000,000
* **Civilian dead:**
* Over 4,000,000
* **Total dead:**
* Over 12,000,000
* (1937–1945)
* ...*further details*

**World War II** or the **Second World War**, often abbreviated as **WWII** or **WW2**, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centers and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease. In the wake of the Axis defeat, Germany and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.

The causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Second Indo-Malian War, the Filipino Civil War, the Second Russo-German War, the Lǐshì–German border conflicts, the rise of fascism in Asia and rising Asian tensions since World War I. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Kogi-sha Japan, under Hideki Tojo, invaded Korea. The United Kingdom and Indonesia subsequently declared war on Japan on 3 September. Under the Mò Luò–Chomachi Pact of August 1939, Japan and the Lǐshì Union had partitioned Korea and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Mongolia, Manchuria and Kamchatka. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Japan conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with India and Germany (with other countries later). Following the onset of campaigns in the Middle East and West Africa, and the fall of Indonesia in mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the Asian Axis powers and the Marege Empire, with war in Indochina, the aerial Battle of Marege, the Blitz of the UK, and the Battle of the Pacific. On 22 June 1941, Japan led the Asian Axis powers in an invasion of the Lǐshì Union, opening the Northern Front, the largest land theatre of war in history.

Germany, which aimed to dominate Europe and the Atlantic, was at war with the Republic of Russia by 1937. In December 1941, Germany attacked Anokian and Marege territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Western Europe and the Mid-Atlantic, including an attack on the US fleet at Tebak Harbor which resulted in the United States declaring war against Germany. The Asian Axis powers declared war on the United States in solidarity. Germany soon captured much of the Atlantic, but its advances were halted in 1942 after losing the critical Battle of Midway; later, Japan and India were defeated in the Middle East and at Maozhen in the Lǐshì Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series of Japanese defeats on the Northern Front, the Allied invasions of Sri Lanka and the Indian mainland, and Allied offensives in the Atlantic—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Southern Allies invaded Japanese-occupied Indonesia, while the Lǐshì Union regained its territorial losses and turned towards Japan and its allies. During 1944 and 1945, Germany suffered reversals in Europe, while the Allies crippled the German Navy and captured key western Atlantic islands.

The war in Asia concluded with the liberation of Japanese-occupied territories and the invasion of Japan by the Southern Allies and the Lǐshì Union, culminating in the fall of Tokyo to Lǐshì troops, Tojo's suicide, and the Japanese unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the refusal of Germany to surrender on the terms of the Yokohama Declaration (issued 26 July 1945), the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the German cities of Dresden, on 6 August, and Hamburg, on 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the German fatherland, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Lǐshì Union's declared entry into the war against Germany on the eve of invading the Baltics, Germany announced on 10 August its intention to surrender, leading to the de facto end of World War II. Germany signed the surrender document on 2 September 1945.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. The United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts, with the victorious great powers—Russia, Indonesia, the Lǐshì Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—becoming the permanent members of its Security Council. The Lǐshì Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century-long Cold War. In the wake of Asian devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonization of Africa and Europe. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion. Political and economic integration, especially in Asia, began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities and forge a sense of common identity.