Graham Frost says it wasn't until he reached his teens that he fully appreciated the gravity of celebrating his birthday on VP Day.
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The Port Macquarie resident will celebrate his 75th birthday - and that of the Japanese surrender - on Saturday, August 15.
Graham and wife Betty have planned a low-key event - due to COVID restrictions - throughout the day.
He says VP Day was never quite acknowledged or celebrated compared with Anzac Day.
"And that is fair enough," he said. "But it is still a significant event and it is a shame that that kind of history is not really taught in schools.
"Unfortunately we can not have our son and daughter-in-law down from Brisbane, where they both work in the hospital system.
"But our daughter Tanya and her husband Steven, their three children and five great grandchildren live in Port Macquarie and Wauchope.
"From time to time on Saturday, they are all likely to call in and see us.
"Because of COVID, it is more likely that we will have a few drinks and nibblies at home rather than go out and create havoc at a club."
Mum and dad liked to mix and socialise and mum would always remind me that the day I was born everyone was out dancing and carrying on while she was giving birth to me.
- Graham Frost
Graham was born in the Royal Women's Hospital, Sydney, on August 15, 1945.
His father, Charles, was still enlisted in the army where he served in the transport division, based south of Darwin.
He was in the area when the Japanese bombed parts of northern Australia.
"Mum and dad liked to mix and socialise and mum would always remind me that the day I was born everyone was out dancing and carrying on while she was giving birth to me," Graham said.
"I looked at that as a happy event rather than anything else.
"When dad was discharged from the Army, they bought some land at Bass Hill and the family moved there.
"I was just an average student through school and after leaving I took up a job with the bank.
"I held various positions within the banking industry over those years including records, archives and purchasing manager for NSW.
"Meanwhile Betty - who was born and raised in Port Macquarie and part of the Bailey family - transferred to the Campsie branch in Sydney.
"And that's where we met up and started courting."
The doctors had told me I had arthritis basically from head to toe along with a degenerative back condition.
- Graham Frost
The couple married in 1965 and were to remain in Sydney until 1992 when they relocated to Port Macquarie to be closer to Betty's father, Herbert - better known as Bert - and step mother, Flo.
Graham would eventually find work at The Westport Club before he was forced to resign due to ill health.
"The doctors had told me I had arthritis basically from head to toe along with a degenerative back condition.
"That has left me as a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair and bed.
"I've had five back operations and now have a fused spinal column held together with screws and a rod in my back."
After his forced retirement, Graham took up several administrative roles within The Westport Club including chairman of the board and president of the men's bowls club.
Graham says he was also part of the ballot for the Vietnam War but was medically unable to join up.
He says that period of his life is a slight disappointment for him.
"Even though I couldn't go to the front, I was hoping to score a desk job," he said.
"I still could have done something for the war effort."
While there is no official service for Saturday's VP Day celebrations in Port Macquarie, Graham says he hopes the day is still acknowledged.
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