Yes, some countries still have outstanding debts from WW2, primarily the United Kingdom, which continues to make regular payments on post-war loans, while the former Soviet Union's Lend-Lease debt was largely settled/written off, and other Axis nations' reparations were paid in goods or resolved through specific tribunals, with Finland being noted as the only one to fully pay its reparations.
The United Kingdom still has amounts outstanding from World War II and its immediate aftermath which it continues to repay on a regular basis. World War II-era claims on Iran have been incorporated into the claims being adjudicated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, established after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
In 1952, the London Agreement on German External Debts assessed the final reparation figure at $3 billion. Germany has yet to pay off its debts for World War II. At this point, it's difficult to determine how much money they still owe after years of inflation and interest.
From 1st July, 1932, the repayments were suspended in accordance with the arrangements made at the Lausanne Conference and have not since been resumed.At the end of 1964 the unpaid balance of the United Kingdom's World War II and Post-War debt to the United States of America was $4,222 millions.
Top 20 Countries that Owe the US Money
The last payments were made on 29 December 2006 for the sum of about $83m USD (£45.5m) to the United States, and about $23.6m USD (£12m) to Canada; the 29th was chosen as it was the last working day of the year.
China owns approximately $859.4 billion in U.S. debt, about 2.6% of the total U.S. debt. Japan surpasses China as the top foreign holder of U.S. debt, with $1.1 trillion.
If there had been no lend-lease, then the UK would have lost the war. In 1941-2 we started to lose shipping to U boats faster than we could build them so we would eventually have brought to starvation without the US Liberty ships. Our tank production was lower than Germany's and the quality was appalling.
Explanation
The last 120,000 bond holders were eventually repaid in 2014 by then Chancellor George Osborne. This amounted to a payment of £1.9 billion. The long existence of the War Bond debt is a graphic illustration of the dark shadow the war cast across the country.
And less than ten years after the war people already were talking about the German economic miracle. What caused the so-called miracle? The two main factors were currency reform and the elimination of price controls, both of which happened over a period of weeks in 1948.
But the United States has never paid a cent of reparations for its war in Vietnam, 1964-75. The International Court of Justice demanded that the US pay reparations for its war against Sandinista Nicaragua, conducted through the Contra movement in the early 1980s, but it refused to pay.
Italy was obliged to pay the following war reparations (article 74): US$125 million to Yugoslavia (equivalent to 1.53 billion in 2024) US$105 million to Greece (equivalent to 1.28 billion in 2024) US$100 million to the Soviet Union (equivalent to 1.22 billion in 2024)
German reparation payments total some 82 billion euro (2022). Around 1.44 billion euro is paid from the federal budget each year for pension and care costs of victims of Nazi persecution, many of whom live in Israel (2022 figures).
Data current as of May 14, 2025. Table 2 provides data on major foreign holders of federal debt by country. The top three estimated foreign holders of federal debt by country, ranked in descending order as of December 2024, are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($0.8 trillion), and the United Kingdom ($0.7 trillion).
In World War II, the three great Allied powers—Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. But the alliance partners did not share common political aims, and did not always agree on how the war should be fought.
The United States has the largest total national debt in absolute dollar terms (over $38 trillion), followed by China and Japan, but Japan has the highest debt when measured as a percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (over 230%), indicating a much larger debt burden relative to its economic output.
He believed that Adolf Hitler could not be trusted and that any agreement with the Nazis would only lead to further destruction down the line. Churchill argued that negotiating would mean accepting Nazi domination of Europe, which he saw as morally and strategically unacceptable.
WW2 soldiers carried condoms primarily for disease prevention (STDs like syphilis and gonorrhea) and for practical combat uses, such as keeping sand and mud out of their rifle barrels, protecting small items, or even as makeshift waterproof bags, although the weapon-protection use is sometimes exaggerated in popular culture. The military distributed them widely (often in "prophylactic kits") to maintain troop strength, recognizing the significant manpower lost to venereal diseases in past conflicts.
By 1970, the Soviet economy had reached its zenith and was estimated at 60 percent of the size of the United States in terms of the estimated commodities (like steel and coal).
Eliminating the U.S. government's debt is a Herculean task that could take decades. In addition to obvious steps, such as hiking taxes and slashing spending, the government could take a number of other approaches, some of them unorthodox and even controversial.
For the past 10 years, Japan has been the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt. As of the latest Treasury data, Japan holds over $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. Japan's motivation is driven by economic strategy. Treasuries' investments are safe and help Japan manage its own currency.
Brazil: $54.3 billion (£43bn) total debt
Across South America, Brazil is easily the largest recipient of BRI funding and holds the most total debt to China.