The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
"Flash burns from primary heat waves caused most of the casualties to inhabitants. Others were burned when their homes burst into flame. Flying debris caused many injuries. A fire storm of winds followed the blast at Hiroshima as air was drawn back to the center of the burning area. Trees were uprooted. The bomb took the lives of 42,000 persons and injured 40,000 more.
It destroyed 39 percent of all the buildings standing in Nagasaki. According to U.S. estimates, 40,000 people were killed or never found as a result of the second bomb. Highly penetrating radiation from the nuclear explosion had a heavy casualty effect. Energy released by the explosion of this type of atomic bomb used over Nagasaki is roughly equivalent to the power generated by exploding 20,000 tons of TNT or 40 million pounds of TNT. It would fill two good sized cargo ships.
In the early stages of the explosion, temperatures of tens of millions of degrees were produced. The light emitted is roughly ten times the brightness of the sun. During the explosion, various types of radiations such as gamma rays and alpha and beta particles eminate from the explosion. These radiative particles give the atomic bomb its greatest deadliness. They may last years or even centuries in dangerous amounts. Gamma radiation and neutrons caused thousands of cases of radiation sickness in Japan. First the blood was affected, and then the blood making organs were impaired including the bone marrow, the spleen and the lymph nodes. When radiation was severe, the organs of the body became necrotic within a few days, marking the victim for certain death within a short period of time."
Source: Atomic Central, http://www.vce.com/hironaga.html
