Karl Brubaker was so close to one of history's greatest events that he almost could have reached out and touched it.

As a member of the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion, or SeaBees, on Sept. 2, 1945, the East Drumore Township native was aboard the battleship USS Missouri, standing less than 40 feet from where Japanese officials were signing the documents that ended World War II.

"After all that went on during the war, I just couldn't believe what was taking place right there in front of me," the 83-year-old said during an interview last week at his home on Spring Valley Road.

Standing just above the Missouri's verandah deck, where the ceremony was taking place, Brubaker — armed with a simple Brownie camera — took photos of the Japanese officials signing the surrender. His photos arguably are just as good as the Life Magazine photographer's who stood nearby.

"The pictures he took are pretty much the same as what I have," Brubaker said.

Brubaker was so close to the action, he said, that he could see the expressions on the faces of the Japanese.

"There were no smiles," he said. "They had no expressions on their faces."

The same was not true for men such as Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, who, in 1942, had surrendered himself and his men to the Japanese in the Philippines, and who had spent three years as a prisoner of war.

"There was a look of hate on his face," Brubaker said of Wainwright, who also was aboard the Missouri that day.

Even though the Japanese were surrendering, men did not relax, he said. U.S. fighter planes droned overhead, guarding against a fanatical suicide attack.

"We expected that at any time they might come over and try to wipe out all the officers here on this ship — (Gen. Douglas) MacArthur and Wainwright and (Admiral Chester) Nimitz," Brubaker said. "They had a wonderful chance to eliminate all of them by dropping a bomb, or however they might want to do it."

Aside from the surrender proceedings, Brubaker recalled the sight of hundreds of American warships, from destroyers to aircraft carriers, anchored in Tokyo Bay.

"All of Fifth Fleet was there," he said. "That was amazing to see."

Brubaker had arrived at Tokyo Bay aboard the brand-new escort carrier USS Puget Sound. He had enlisted in the Navy in 1944, but then had a setback.

"I went to Philadelphia and signed the papers, then I ended up getting the measles," he said.

Finally enlisting in 1945, he was sent to the U.S. Naval Training center in Sampson, N.Y. Then a cousin told him abut the SeaBees. He signed up and was transferred to Camp Endicott in Rhode Island.

By May 1945, he was on his way across the Pacific aboard the USS Matsonia, a luxury liner turned troop ship.

"The bunks on the ship were stacked five high, and the ship's loudspeakers were going all the time," Brubaker recalled.

Their first day at sea, the men were served a meal of hot dogs, sauerkraut and chocolate ice cream. The motion of the ship soon had men hanging over the rail.

"That food didn't go down good," Brubaker said.

Stopping at Pearl Harbor, Brubaker was assigned to a work crew tasked with unloading a unique cargo from a transport ship.

"They had us unloading gold bars," Brubaker said.

He doesn't know where the gold came from, or where it went. Nor did he get to keep any souvenirs.

Then it was aboard the USS Puget Sound bound for war. Their first stop was Tinian, where, he later discovered, they unloaded some key components for the atomic bombs.

Brubaker was at nearby Guam when the bombs were dropped and the Japanese asked for peace.

His first thought, he recalled, was "We won't have to fight on all the islands that we expected we'd have to go to."

After seeing the treaty signed, Brubaker remained in Japan with the occupation forces. He returned home in June 1946.

He married Jean Booth in December 1947 and became an electrician, owning and operating Brubaker Electric until he retired in 1995.

lalexander@lnpnews.com