CAPE MAN POW WHEN BOMB FELL

For Charles Branum, a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II, Aug. 6, 1945, was like most days at his prison camp nine miles from Hiroshima.

Branum, on a work detail, was welding a ship's mast in the dry dock on an island just off the mainland, where the prison camp was situated.

"It was a pretty clear day," he recalls. "I saw this plane go over and it looked so peaceful. Nine miles away I would hear him drop the bomb, then he revved the engine and got out of there as fast as he could."

Branum felt the shock waves and watched a huge mushroom cloud rise over the city. "We couldn't figure out what they had hit to make a cloud like that," he said.

On the 50th anniversary of the bombing, Branum remains convinced that dropping the atomic bomb was the right decision to end the war.

"If they hadn't used the bomb, I wouldn't be here today," said the 74-year-old Cape Girardeau resident. The Japanese had orders to kill all the prisoners eventually. "'Don't let even one escape,' was what they said."

"I know they claim that the flight over Hiroshima was a first run, but I remember for several days before we saw a plane fly over Hiroshima, turn and fly off without ever dropping a bomb," he said. A dry run during wartime was very unusual.

Branum was held captive by the Japanese for 3 1/2 years. After the bomb on Hiroshima, conditions at the prison camp improved.

The day the bomb was dropped, Branum was caught with stolen food. The guards beat him for hours. He expected the beating to be followed with the standard punishment.

"We would have to kneel on the concrete with one bamboo stick under your knee and one behind it," Branum said. "Then you had to spend the night in a guard shack. It was so small you couldn't lie down."

Instead, the guards announced to the prisoners that no more beatings would take place and prisoners wouldn't have to kneel on the concrete. The new punishment was to have one's head shaved. The Japanese shaved Branum's head on the spot.

About 20 American prisoners were being held in Hiroshima when the bomb exploded. Two were brought to Branum's camp. "One was real sick," he said. "He had mucus running out of his eyes, ears and mouth. The other guy said, `I guess I'll look like him pretty soon.'"

The ranking officer among the American prisoners with Branum was a major who also was a doctor.

"They thought he should know the antidote," Branum said.

The prison camp was small, about 100 Americans and another 75 Brits. The Allies didn't know the prisoners were on the tiny island.

"One day three fighter planes flew over and we started shouting and waving, but they didn't see us," he said. "The next day we were ready for them."

The prisoners waved scraps of fabric and caught the attention of the pilots. "They threw out their cigarettes, gum, candy and notes that the big boys would be back," Branum said.

A few days later a B-29 dropped food by parachute. "They didn't have any idea how many prisoners were there. We had a lot of food, you wouldn't believe."

The Americans, with the help of a Japanese seamstress, picked out the red, white and blue canopies from the parachutes to make an American flag.

"I got to raise it," Branum said. "It is documented to be the first American flag raised over Japan after World War II."

Branum and the others at the camp were officially liberated on Sept. 15.

Branum caught a ship and eventually sailed into the San Francisco Bay.

"I can't describe it," he said. "You know you are not going to come back, and you do. That Golden Gate Bridge looked pretty good to me."

When the war started, Branum weighed 185 pounds. By the war's end, his weight had dropped to only 80 pounds.

He was exposed to radiation from the bomb, but so far doctors haven't linked any medical problems to the exposure.

Most of Branum's medical problems are due to the malnutrition he suffered as a prisoner of war.

He has a disease called wet beriberi, brought on by a lack of vitamin B1 and starvation. The disease caused Branum to have a stroke a few years ago.

Branum, who earned six Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star, fears that young people will forget or never learn of the atrocities in World War II that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki.

"We can't forget," he said.