He was a 21-year-old man who was exposed to the Hiroshima atomic bomb about 1 to 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. He was outdoors in Hiroshima City, wearing khaki-colored clothing, a hat, and shoes. He had chondritis of the ear with a cauliflower-like deformity. He was exposed to burns on his back through his clothing. There was slight hair loss. His white blood cell count was 2,400 on the 22nd day and 5,400 on the 92nd day; this was his condition on November 28, 1945, about 114 days after his exposure on August 6, 1945. Occasionally, burns and infection combined to cause chondritis of the ear. During healing, the auricle was scarred, shrunken, and distorted, causing a cauliflower deformity. Such deformities were common among survivors within about 1.5 km of the hypocenter.
Even among those who were at the same distance from the hypocenter, the immediate symptoms from the burns caused by the atomic bomb flashes varied from one survivor to another. Vesicles tended to appear more frequently in survivors who were within about 1 km than in those who were farther away. For one survivor at this distance, the blisters appeared quickly but were painless until the next day. The two survivors at about 1 km to 1.5 km had both pain and blisters within 5 minutes. The survivors above about 1.5 km experienced pain within 2 hours, but the blisters did not appear until the next day. In the other survivors, even above about 2.0 km, vesicles developed within about 10 minutes. As with most burns, the pain was severe for the first few hours and then subsided. The symptoms and course of the burns were similar to those of sunburn, except that erythema appeared earlier than usual.
In both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, burn casualties were a major problem. In the case of the Hiroshima bomb, although there were more people injured by the blast than by burns, burns were the cause of serious injuries and accounted for more than half of the deaths after the bombing. The significance of heat as a cause of immediate death can only be estimated. It is estimated that it was the main cause of immediate death, especially in the area of the inner hypocenter.
The relative incidence of flash and flame burns is unknown, although both flash and flame were responsible for deaths on the day the atom bomb exploded. Undoubtedly, many of the survivors who were injured by the blast and were unable to escape were killed by the flames. There were also many cases of flash and flame burns occurring simultaneously. In many cases, the flashes set clothing on fire, causing severe burns. However, the vast majority of burn survivors had flash burns. In the 970 Nagasaki atomic bomb cases in which the type of burn was accurately documented, flash burns accounted for about 96% of the burns and flame burns only about 4%. Similarly, among survivors at the Omura Naval Hospital in Omura, Nagasaki, about 97% of burns were caused by flashes. The low incidence of flame-induced burns was confirmed by 20-day survivor records. Flame burns from atomic bomb explosions were similar to normal burns.
