Arthur Driver is among the last of his generation.
The 100-year-old Palmerston man is one of an estimated 81 New Zealand World War II veterans still alive.
As Driver heads steadily toward his 101st birthday, he still remembers being "the young chicken" serving with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in Fiji during WWII.
"I can't say I enjoyed it. Far from it - I'm still suffering from it."
World War II veteran Arthur Driver at 100, is one of the last of his generation who volunteered to fight for New Zealand. Photo: ODT
As the country marks Anzac Day today, University of Otago professor of history Dr Angela Wanhalla (Kāi Tahu), said with the passing of time and the loss of a generation, sharing family histories and the lives of one's relatives was a way to keep alive the lessons learned in war.
"We don't have those first-hand accounts as such any more - the more that we can do to record those histories and the stories of those men, I think the better we will be as a country.
"I think that's a really significant loss when that generation passes away," Wanhalla said.
Anzac Day allowed people to pause and reflect on the meaning of war, its impacts and how it shaped our country, she said.
"But we need to do more than that; we also need to make sure that those histories and experiences are remembered - we all have a part to play in that.
"Families are torn asunder by war because you lose people and they are buried overseas... you never get to mourn them properly."
Driver was 15 when war was declared.
After convincing his parents to allow him to enlist, a 17-year-old Driver was shipped north to a camp in Rongotai, near Wellington, where he trained.
"[My parents] didn't want to let me go, but I talked them into it... I felt it was my duty."
He linked with the air force marine section, where he worked on sea planes.
"They only let me into the (marine section) because my grandparents had a crib out in Purakaunui where I used to row the boat around."
Soon after he found himself serving in Fiji, where he stayed for the rest of the war.
Injuries and illness kept him from seeing live action - first, he was supposed to to be shipped out to Pitcairn Island, but he became ill with diphtheria and couldn't go.
He then dislocated his knee when kicking a football, so his chance of heading to the fighting in the Pacific vanished.
Later, he was due to be shipped out to Japan; however a Jeep accident halted those plans.
Driver dislocated his knees and a hip, a bone in his arm was protruding from his skin, two vertebrae in his back shifted, and he sustained a head injury.
"Other than that I was quite well."
That was the end of the war for him.
After arriving back in Auckland on Labour Day in 1945, he spent months in hospital, in a cast from his ankles to his neck, before returning to Dunedin in February, 1946.
A week later, he was making his way down the aisle to marry Joyce Wieck at First Church.
For Driver, Anzac Day means remembering the times he had with the boys that did not return.
"It just brings back those memories - I don't know of anyone I served with who is still living.
"I was a young chicken to most of them back then," he said.
A Veterans Affairs spokesman said they had 81 living World War II veterans registered who served in New Zealand or abroad.
Seventy-three live in New Zealand and eight were overseas.
There were two remaining WWII veterans from Otago and Southland they know of.
"There are likely to be other New Zealand veterans who are still alive and served in the Second World War but aren't clients of Veterans' Affairs.
"There will also be some living New Zealanders who served in the Second World War, but for another nation," the spokesperson said.
About 200,000 New Zealanders served in the Second World War, and about 12,000 died.
- Otago Daily Times
