The polarization of the fragments from binary fission or of scattering or fusioning heavy nuclei is investigated in the liquid drop model. Due to the mutual Coulomb repulsion near contact the fragments may be polarized with respect to their charges (electric dipole moments from inhomogeneous charge distributions) as well as with respect to their shapes (quadrupole and octupole deformations). The lowering of the minimum energy near contact due to charge polarization is in the order of 1 MeV if one takes into account the energy from the giant dipole restoring force derived from the volume symmetry energy in addition to the liquid drop energies. The question whether one obtains prolate or oblate shapes is entirely due to the restriction in deformation space (fixed distance between centers-of mass or between the tips of the fragments).