Horrors of the ‘ant-walking alligator people’ of Hiroshima whose eyes & faces were burned off with skins like scales

"Now eyeless and faceless, with their heads transformed into blackened alligator hides displaying red holes, indicating mouths," he wrote.

"The alligator people did not scream. Their mouths could not form the sounds. The noise they made was worse than screaming.

"They uttered a continuous murmur like locusts on a midsummer night.

One man, staggering on charred stumps of legs, was carrying a dead baby upside down

Charles PellegrinoThe Last Train from Hiroshima

"One man, staggering on charred stumps of legs, was carrying a dead baby upside down."

The "ant walkers" were just one the horrors witnessed by the survivors who found themselves in a wasteland the likes of which has never been seen again.

Other survivors described the lumbering injured covered in burns as "walking ghosts" as two thirds of the city was reduced to rubble.

While other accounts said many of the wounded were left covered in crawling blankets of black flies as they were too weak to swat them away while the insects feasted and laid eggs in their raw flesh.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki - which was bombed three days later on August 9 - were the first and so far only time man has made wartime use of nuclear weapons.

It was a double blow which ended World War 2 - with some arguing the bomb saved more lives in the long term as it meant the US did not have to invade Japan as the Emperor surrendered just weeks later.

But others argue it was an example of pure barbarism as most of those who died were civilians.

It is estimated some 165 people were "double survivors" - those who managed to flee to ruins of Hiroshima to Nagasaki, only to them feel the burn of nuclear fire once again.

Randomness seems to have been the key in deciding who died and who survived the bombing - with those unfortunate enough to be outside turned to dust or horrifically burned, while people lucky enough to be inside lived to see the aftermath.

Pellegrino wrote the account of one doctor who said survivors were so traumatised by the events they ignored even those crying for help and "shrieking" from the flames.

"Those of us who stayed where we were, those of us who took refuge in the hills behind the hospital when the fires began to spread and close in, happened to escape alive" he said.

"In short, those who survived the bomb were, if not merely lucky, in a greater or lesser degree selfish, self-centred - guided by instinct and not by civilisation."

The survivors called the A-bomb the "pika-don", or flash-bang, as if you saw the flash - the "pika" - you had just seconds to run for cover before the bang - the "don".

Pictures show survivors who were wearing patterned dark clothing saw the stripes or flowers burned onto their skin, and wristwatches branded their flesh.

And people's shadows were blasted onto the pavements - a chilling picture of what they were doing a moment before the explosion.

Dr Michihiko Hachiya's diary also reveals the the aftermath of the bombing as he lived just one mile from ground zero.

He said he recalled the flash and the pain as he was left with shards of wood and glass embedded in his body - and that was only where the horror began.