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This June will mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when 160,000 Allied troops swarmed onto the beaches of Normandy in an invasion that would ultimately lead to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.

The region is preparing for millions of visitors, since it’s likely to be the last major commemoration of the battle attended by survivors. My colleague Thomas Fuller met one who’s getting ready to make the emotional journey.

Jake Larson, a World War II veteran who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, wears a pin on his hat with the shield and motto of his military regiment, “To the last man.”

For Mr. Larson, 96, the phrase has never been more meaningful.

“I am the last man,” he said Tuesday afternoon at his home, an old wood-clad farmhouse in Martinez.