No estimate of the number of deaths or early symptoms due to blast
pressure can be made. The pressures developed on the ground under the
explosions were not sufficient to kill more than those people very near
the center of damage (within a few hundred feet at most). Very few
cases of ruptured ear drums were noted, and it is the general feeling
of the medical authorities that the direct blast effects were not
great. Many of the Japanese reports, which are believed to be false,
describe immediate effects such as ruptured abdomens with protruding
intestines and protruding eyes, but no such results were actually
traced to the effect of air pressure alone.