Second World War veteran Ian MCrae remembers the exhilaration he felt 75 years ago when Japan surrendered in World War ll.
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The Dimboola farmer served in the Royal Australian Air Force during WW ll, and said he never fought during the war but lost a lot of friends.
"I was training in Mount Gambier, South Australia when Japan surrendered ... I remember we all felt very relieved," he said.
"The dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima finished the war very quickly.
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"The Japanese weren't going to give up, they were entrenched in all of the islands and they were going to fight until the end.
"The atomic bomb reminded everyone in the world what it could do and one has never been used since."
Saturday marks the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific, it was the day World War ll ended for Australia.
The 98-year-old joined the air force at the age of 19 and trained as an aircraft mechanic in Adelaide and Melbourne.
"I grew up on a farm out in Wallup and left school when I was 14 ... I worked on the farm until I joined the air force in 1942," he said.
"In 1943, I became a pilot and clocked up 640 hours of flying.
"During my four years serving in the air force I was mainly training, and in the last 18 months I was training navigators."
Mr MCrae said he was "lucky" because he had the farm to go back to, but after the war a lot of soldiers couldn't find work.
"We had a lot of prisoners of war who found it very difficult to adjust back to reality," he said.
"I had a lot of friends who lost their lives, and a few that came home wounded and knocked around for the rest of their lives."
After the war, Mr MCrae worked at the Wimmera Shire Council for 21 years and was elected as mayor twice.
Mr MCrae was also involved with the Dimboola Memorial Secondary College Council for 24 years.
"I have been married to my wife Janet for 72 years and we are still looking after one another ... we are both very lucky," he said.
"This Saturday we should try and remember the people who sacrificed their lives during the war.
"It was a long time ago of course, but I think it is important to remember what happened."
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