80 years ago, the March 11 issue of Life magazine gave a brief overview of the effects of the atomic weapons used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A U.S. commission sent to Japan to study the effects had released some of its findings, and the magazine carried some graphics illustrating them. It noted that the blast at Hiroshima battered the city with waves of destruction. The first was heat, which caused clothing on people a half mile away to burst into flame. Trees a mile and a half away were set on fire, and patters of dresses were charred into skin.

In the following blast wave, the magazine noted that people’s bodies were terribly squeezed and internal organs ruptured, after which the bodies were blown at 500-1000 miles per hour. Practically everyone within 6500 feet was killed or seriously injured. At left, the graphic shows the effect on various types of buildings.