The card depicts a New Zealander in jungle uniform giving the thumbs up from the beach of a tropical island.
Unlike the other troops, Ernest James "Digger" Thornley, of Dunedin, did not send his card home.
He kept it.
The private got every member of his company to sign the back.
Today, on his 100th birthday, Mr Thornley still has the card.
He is the only one left alive.
But World War 2, and his role in it, still sometimes occupies his mind.
"All I can say is let’s hope there’s never another war like that bugger," he said.
"We don’t want any more like that; it’s just a waste of time, a waste of young lives."
Mr Thornley grew up in a large family in St Kilda and by the time he turned 18 he had joined the army.
And as soon as the Japanese entered the war he was sent overseas.
From then it was "island after island".
His last job in the war effort was landing on Nissan Island, near the equator.
New Zealand troops cleared it of Japanese soldiers and then when Americans began to land Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers on it, his machine gun unit looked after the runway.
During the war he met his future wife, Blanche (nee Blackman), who came from a timber town on the West Coast.
And when the war was over, Mr Thornley and a mate bought a boat.
They turned it into a trawler and fished from Waikawa for seven years.
The men got a crayfish licence and started making good money.
Mr Thornley said he enjoyed every moment of it.
"The only trouble is my wife hated every moment of it," he said.
She put the pressure on when he got injured at work and they moved back to Dunedin, and a house in Prince Albert Rd.
He started a business as an upholsterer and car trimmer and with Blanche raised a family.
At the weekend, Mr Thornley received mail from the Queen and from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
And he celebrated turning 100 with about 55 close friends and family members at Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village, in St Clair.
Mr Thornley’s wife died about four years ago.
Although his oldest daughter Shirley Penfold is in Australia and unable to attend the celebrations,
he was joined by his four other children: Jim, Gary, Jan Newall, and Rhonda Bowkett.
Before the party, when asked if he had any regrets, Mr Thornley said "no".
"Everybody has their ups and downs, don’t they," he said. "It’s amazing where you go.
"Without war, you have a choice. In war, you go where you are put."
