The official ceremony for the last veteran of ww2

I was looking at the list of the last veteran of ww1

Looking through this list of ww1,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_last_World_War_I_veterans_by_country

The average age is about 19 in 1918 and they live to 105 with the oldest 111.

I found the last official documented veteran of ww1 was
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Green

In September 1918 at the age of 17, she served as an officers' mess steward about a month before the war ended. I think its a bit rich to call her a veteran but that is another issue. Officially she is.

Now I was wondering who would be the last veteran of ww2?

So based on ww1 what it is, is a person probably a woman who joins the military very young almost at the end of the war.

Now the war lasted in Europe until May 1945, in the Pacific, the war ends in August 1945. So I suggest that this veteran served a unit associated with the Pacific.

Now one point is that many people in the Pacific did serve but the records would be dubious so it will be a problem to them to officially be called a veteran eg China, Philippines, Thailand etc. So I will wipe them off the list plus if I takeout those that had only small armies, that leaves me with the following in order of size
Japan
USA
India
USSR
Britain
Australia

Now going through this list of life expectancy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Japan 83.7
Australia 82.8
Britain 81.2
USA 79.3
USSR 70.5
India 68.2

It looks like Japan would be the favorite, the largest military and it has the highest life expectancy.

Japan has another advantage as towards the end it rapidly recruited large numbers of kids to make a final stand which as a result of the Japan surrender these people never fought so they lived.

I think we can assume based on ww1 figures that the person would be about 16 or 17 in August 1945 and that they will live to about 110.

So that this Japanese person probably a woman was born in 1928 and the official ceremony for her will be in about 20 years time.

What do you think?
 
if some woman says they were a resistance fighter in France, Netherlands, etc at 13, popular culture will embrace them as a veteran.
 
if some woman says they were a resistance fighter in France, Netherlands, etc at 13, popular culture will embrace them as a veteran.
XD, that'd be pretty unlikely. My point with the life expectancy variation is that whoever is the last survivor is going to be an outlier anyway, even in their own country. I'd argue however that it's much more likely to be a man, simply due to the much, much higher amounts of men compared to women in the fighting. For the countries, don't forget the numerous former British and French colonies that provided a large number of soldiers too.
 
The French were in Indochina aka Vietnam today

After ww2, there was a string of little wars, none of these is considered to being ww2 continued.

Wat.

Considering that the war ended barely 3 months later in the Pacific and the life expectancy variations are so huge, this is so much NOT an argument.

It is when you deal with the oldest person.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-oldest-person-in-the-world-keeps-dying/



The last veteran of WW2 will probably be a woman in either Japan or France if you go by statistics.

I would agree with Japan for the reasons mentioned, Japan was in the war slightly longer, the Japanese army was larger so giving a bigger base to work with and Japan's life expectancy is about 3 years longer than France.
https://www.infoplease.com/world/health-and-social-statistics/life-expectancy-countries-0

if some woman says they were a resistance fighter in France, Netherlands, etc at 13, popular culture will embrace them as a veteran.

I did say official, I note that verification is important here we tend to accept such fact checkers like the guinness world records in these circumstances.

XD, that'd be pretty unlikely. My point with the life expectancy variation is that whoever is the last survivor is going to be an outlier anyway, even in their own country. I'd argue however that it's much more likely to be a man, simply due to the much, much higher amounts of men compared to women in the fighting.

Many more men served in ww1 then women yet the oldest veteran was a woman.
 
Your article is about the current oldest person, not the oldest person among a defined group that has a lot of other parameters (such as the initial survival rate or the health situation - better to be US than Japanese considering these criteria, for example). And the article is pretty irrelevant with the whole issue of outliers.
Many more men served in ww1 then women yet the oldest veteran was a woman.
I was talking about people in the fighting, TBH.
 
Your article is about the current oldest person, not the oldest person among a defined group that has a lot of other parameters (such as the initial survival rate or the health situation - better to be US than Japanese considering these criteria, for example). And the article is pretty irrelevant with the whole issue of outliers.

Overall the Japanese people did not experience mass starvation although food was certainly a problem.

If you look at this graph
http://www.roperld.com/science/graphics/LifeExpectancyJapan.jpg

The life expectancy of Japanese person in 2000 was 80 so these people in 1945 were 25 in comparison in the US in 2000, the life expectancy was 76.6.



I was talking about people in the fighting, TBH.

Check the first post in this discussion where I found the last official documented veteran of ww1 listed was
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Green

In September 1918 at the age of 17, she served as an officers' mess steward about a month before the war ended. I think too its a bit rich to call her a veteran but that is another issue, officially she is.
 
The last 'veteran' will probably a female member of the German Girls' League or similar who fought in the Battle of Berlin. The last combat veteran will probably be a Japanese conscript who fought at Okinawa or Iwo Jima.
 
The last 'veteran' will probably a female member of the German Girls' League or similar who fought in the Battle of Berlin.

What about the Japanese women recruited for the last stand in Japan in September and August?

The last combat veteran will probably be a Japanese conscript who fought at Okinawa or Iwo Jima.

Months later in August over a million Russian and Japanese fought in China.
 
Where is the last Allied Veteran most likely to be from?

To me, that is not an easy question to answer, whereas Japan ticks all the boxes, none of the Allied countries does. Whatever else they may say most people in this discussion accept that it will probably be a woman on an average they have about 5 years more.

The major armies in the Pacific whose records would be officially accepted would be in order
USA
India
USSR
Britain
Australia


Now going through this list of life expectancy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Australia 82.8
Britain 81.2
USA 79.3
USSR 70.5
India 68.2

So we can rule out USSR and India leaving us with

I think we can rule out Britain as in the Pacific she had fewer women in the region.

I also suspect that the women used by Australia in the war were younger, just from comments, ex-soldiers told me as the Australian women were not shipped out but by quantity, the US would be very much larger. But I think the combination of being slightly younger and having a slightly higher life expectancy would win so I would say she would be an Aussie.
 
Now I was wondering who would be the last veteran of ww2?

So based on ww1 what it is, is a person probably a woman who joins the military very young almost at the end of the war.

upload_2019-1-28_14-12-52.jpeg


Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor of the Auxiliary Territorial Service...



Tongue in cheek of course, but she does meet a surprisingly large number of the criteria (she was 19 in 1945 when she joined the ATS forex) and of course has access to the best medical care in the world.
 
To me, that is not an easy question to answer, whereas Japan ticks all the boxes, none of the Allied countries does. Whatever else they may say most people in this discussion accept that it will probably be a woman on an average they have about 5 years more.

The major armies in the Pacific whose records would be officially accepted would be in order
USA
India
USSR
Britain
Australia


Now going through this list of life expectancy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Australia 82.8
Britain 81.2
USA 79.3
USSR 70.5
India 68.2

So we can rule out USSR and India leaving us with

I think we can rule out Britain as in the Pacific she had fewer women in the region.

I also suspect that the women used by Australia in the war were younger, just from comments, ex-soldiers told me as the Australian women were not shipped out but by quantity, the US would be very much larger. But I think the combination of being slightly younger and having a slightly higher life expectancy would win so I would say she would be an Aussie.


TBH I wouldn't be so quick as to rule out Russia, yes their average life expectancy is less than all but India. However you are by definition talking about an outlier, and once you are doing that average becomes less important. On top of that you are further restricting the pool to veteran survivors which are a sub section of the general population and that effect how likely an outlier in terms of the whole population will come from them. i.e just because their might be several Japanese who live to say 116 doesn't mean that will have served. On top of that you are further reducing it by narrowing it to the last living, and that's not th same as oldest WW2 veteran at time of death. I.e say some Japanese chap who was 25 in 1938 and lived to 115, he'll die in 2028, but if there an american who was 20 in 1945 and lives to 110 they'll be alive in 2035 and will beat our Japanese chap.

But here's where Russia come in, because of a few factors

1). a lot of Russians served in terms of troops, a lot

2). in terms of woman active combatants Russia has a higher proportion than anyone else on that list.*

3). Given the nature of the regime (and the nature of the resource intensive, all or nothing fighting) I suspect that there will be a higher percentage of underage combatants in the Russian forces than some (although maybe not as extreme as Germany at the end)

4). the 70.5 average you give for life span in Russia is combined for male/female, but in Russia the gender gap at 11.6 years is more pronounced than in some other places (Male 64.7 / Female 76.3, ....one word Vodka :))

5). How mobilisation of combat troops was weighted throughout the war period. (combines with 2 & 3 here, Russia was feeling the pinch in terms of manpower by the end even as it tried to maintain the high numbers)

that said healthcare is a big factor here and that likely goes against our theoretical Russian veteran, there's also book keeping. Russia isn't the only country where this could be an issue though.

So I wouldn't rule out Russia!



*One last thing while the top 10 oldest people are all women the difference between average age of the top ten oldest women and top ten oldest men at 3.5 years is less than the gender split for average life span (4 years 4 months)
 
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Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor of the Auxiliary Territorial Service...



Tongue in cheek of course, but she does meet a surprisingly large number of the criteria (she was 19 in 1945 when she joined the ATS forex) and of course has access to the best medical care in the world.
Don't forget her mum lasted awhile, so she may have the genetics to pull this off.
 
So I wouldn't rule out Russia!

Another factor is that if you look at this list the oldest Russians actually left Russia and made a new home for themselves in other countries German and Finland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_people_by_country

In which case the person may have two official ceremonies, it might be a nice reconciliation if a Russian and German minister came?

*One last thing while the top 10 oldest people are all women the difference between average age of the top ten oldest women and top ten oldest men at 3.5 years is less than the gender split for average life span (4 years 4 months)

It is a lot in terms of the oldest people, check the list above.
 
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