As we reported recently, the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II may have been far more powerful and deadly than we realize. But it is the details about this shocking event that are truly astounding, and are sure to amaze you more than 70 years after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that left scores dead.

The bombing of Hiroshima immediately killed a staggering 80,000 people, but the effects of the radiation resulted in incredible suffering and death after the event, and a huge fire that raged hours after the bombing caused even more destruction. Surveys estimate that 4.7 square miles of the city were totally destroyed, which included 69 percent of all buildings.

Experts estimate that as many as 140,000 people ultimately died in Hiroshima. And one study estimates that from 1950 to 2000, 46 percent of deaths from leukemia and 11 percent of solid cancers in the area may be due to radiation from the bomb. That is to say nothing of the tremendous amount of birth defects and damage to brain development that are more difficult to measure.

All told, combined with the bombing of Nagasaki, Hiroshima was one of the most devastating events in human history, and one that few seem to understand the true toll it took.