End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw
Aug 20, 2025
On My Mind Today:
Today seems like a good day — as nuclear news goes — for a rare “human interest” story from Canadian author Michael Erskine about one man’s — even older than I am — opposition to “all things nuclear”.
The article makes me wish for more detail, but it is a heart-warming down-to-earth story about his reaction as a young Canadian farmer to the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6th and 9th, 1945.
~llaw
The Atomic Bomb Dome of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (photo by Shutterstock
The Manitoulin ExpositorManitoulin Island’s trusted news source
Ed Burt’s opposition to all things nuclear began 80 years ago
Author:Michael Erskine
5 min.read
96-year-old reflects on Hiroshima anniversary
KAGAWONG—It has been quite the journey for anti-nuclear activist Ed Burt whose lifelong passion has been to sound the alarm on our complacency about nuclear power. On the advent of the 80th anniversary of the only time a nuclear bomb has been used in combat, The Expositor caught up with Mr. Burt to chat about his memory of that day, and how that event has coloured his experience ever since.
Mr. Burt was a 15-year-old when the news of dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came across on the radio in 1945—and this was to have a lasting, in fact lifelong, impact on the young Haweater.
“It did, it really had an impact on me, and it still does,” said Mr. Burt. “I was going on 16 and we lived on a farm on Poplar Road, just three miles outside Gore Bay.”
Mr. Burt was sitting, ears glued to the family radio, eager to learn of news from the front. These were the days without the internet or even television. News travelled slowly in those days and the first reports of the bombings were actually reported in newspapers. Radio broadcasts soon followed.
The bombing occurred at 8:15 am, on August 6, 1945. Specially modified B-29 bombers of the US Army Air Force dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, levelling it for all intents and purposes and by the end of 1945, between 90,000 and 166,000 human beings had died as a result of the blast and its after affects. On August 9, 1945 a second bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, bringing the butcher’s bill to approximately 210,000.
The reason for the uncertainty about the casualty numbers is illustrated by a conversation Mr. Burt had many years later with a Japanese educator.
“He was a little Japanese guy after the war,” recalled Mr. Burt. “He was the principal of a girls’ school in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped that morning.” The students were in the midst of their morning prayers when the bomb blast hit.
“When he regained consciousness, the principal was buried in rubble and had to claw his way to the surface,” said Mr. Burt. “He looked out across the landscape that had been Hiroshima and it was just a wasteland.”
“I don’t know how many days he spent searching for his girls in the school,” said Mr. Burt. “He didn’t find any of them alive. He did find enough of six to identify them.”
The principal himself had burns marks all over his body. “Somehow, he survived it,” said Mr. Burt. “It is a good example of what happened. Here were all these girls in grade school all praying when they got hit. It wasn’t about killing the officials who started the war and continued it. It was little girls in school.”
Mr. Burt contends that the bombing of Hiroshima was more about testing the bomb than in ending the war. “There is evidence the war was just about over,” he said. “It would have been over fairly soon.” The contention at the time, and for many years after, was that the bombings saved thousands of Allied soldiers’ lives.
For his part, at the young age of 15 (going on 16), Mr. Burt found himself horrified at the carnage.
Out of the horror, death and maiming an accelerated growth of plants followed the blast and devastation. Oleander (Nerium) is the official flower of the city of Hiroshima because it was the first to bloom again after the explosion of the atomic bomb.
But although the Allied populations knew about the bombings, it was not until the end of the occupation that the Japanese public learned the truth of what happened as the occupation forces kept a strong lid on the press in Japan.
Response to the civilian tragedy was severely lacking. The first simple emergency dwellings were not provided until 1946.
Much has been made of the American Manhattan Project and the immense investment made by the US in the development of the bomb, but much less is known of the British and Canadian contributions to that story. The British scientific community played a key role in the race to build a nuclear bomb, but it could not have been possible without the uranium resources hauled through countless rivers by Metis and other Indigenous porters in 200-pound sacks from the far north.
The uranium was then processed at the Eldorado refinery at Port Hope. Without Canadian resources and effort, the production of those lethal weapons would have been delayed, probably for years.
Mr. Burt’s antipathy to all things nuclear does not stop at the creation of bombs, however. He points to the impact of cancers caused by radiation treatments and the incredible length of time that spent nuclear fuel remains deadly to human life as examples of why humanity should step back from those doomsday materials and the potential leakage into our freshwater resources that takes place at locations such as the uranium refining facility on the North Channel, Cameco near Blind River.
He points to the numbers of cancer cases that have surfaced since the 1950s and suggests that there is no coincidence. “It is a silent killer,” he said. He himself has been battling cancer.
The issue is only getting worse with time, he notes.
“I read in the papers the other day that China has 66 new nuclear power plants planned for the future,” he said.
Mr. Burt has put his money where his mouth is over the years fighting against nuclear power. “I darn near lost my farm over it,” he said. He notes that he largely funded his battle through his own resources. “Spent so much money and time over it.”
Along with a group of “regular people,” Mr. Burt has had some successes and he said that he wouldn’t take any of it back. But he notes that their success was somebody else’s loss. “We might keep it out of our back yards,” he said, “but it ends up in somebody else’s yard. The situation hasn’t changed, it just keeps getting worse.”
Mr. Burt will be turning 96 in a couple of weeks, but he remains adamant. “I haven’t changed my mind one bit,” he said.
Article written by
Michael Erskine BA (Hons) is Associate Editor at The Manitoulin Expositor. He received his honours BA from Laurentian University in 1987. His former lives include underground miner, oil rig roughneck, early childhood educator, elementary school teacher, college professor and community legal worker. Michael has written several college course manuals and has won numerous Ontario Community Newspaper Awards in the rural, business and finance and editorial categories.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s All Nuclear Daily Digest” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 7 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that also play an important role in the survival of human and other life.
The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War Threats
- Nuclear War
- Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are no Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in today’s Post.)
- IAEA News (Friday’s only) (NOTE: It’s back!)
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’S ALL NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Wednesday, (08/20/2025)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Ed Burt’s opposition to all things nuclear began 80 years ago – The Manitoulin Expositor
The Manitoulin Expositor
Nuclear activist Ed Burt, who lives in retirement in Billings, has strongly opposed nuclear energy in all forms since the day the first bomb dropped …
Walmart recalls frozen shrimp over potential radioactive contamination – WVTF
WVTF
All Things Considered · BBC World Service · Fresh Air · Full Disclosure · Here … Cesium-137 is a byproduct of nuclear reactions, including nuclear …
Walmart recalls frozen shrimp over potential radioactive contamination – KRWG
KRWG
All Things Considered. Next Up: 7:00 PM Fiesta. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Cesium-137 is a byproduct of nuclear reactions, including nuclear bombs, ..
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Google strikes major nuclear power deal to fuel AI data centers with 50 megawatt capacity
New York Post
Google, Kairos Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority have agreed to supply 50 megawatts of nuclear power to data centers in Tennessee and …
Google strikes major nuclear power deal to fuel AI data centers with 50 megawatt capacity
Fox Business
Google partners with Kairos Power and Tennessee Valley Authority to supply 50 megawatts of nuclear power to data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
Maryland governor speaks on the state’s nuclear future
American Nuclear Society
Despite being home to just one nuclear power plant, the 1,756-MWe Calvert Cliffs, Maryland is among the top producers of nuclear power in the …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Nuclear officials review emergency plans | News | baycitytribune.com
The Bay City Tribune
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan has not soured U.S. interests in nuclear power generation, but has made officials go …
Identifying NPP operator stressors using grounded theory | Scientific Reports – Nature
Nature
Transient and emergency task load. The operation of a nuclear power plant entails transient phenomena, which are complex processes caused by internal/ …
EDF complies with improvement notice – Office for Nuclear Regulation
Office for Nuclear Regulation
ONR’s role in a radiation emergency · Public communications in an emergency … Nuclear Power Station. The enforcement action was taken after a …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Kim Jong Un Unveils Nuclear Warship, Slams US-South Korea Drills | Vantage with Palki Sharma
YouTube
… threats. Also on Vantage Shots: – US Air … ‘Muscle-flexing risks war‘: Kim Jong Un demands rapid expansion of North Korea’s nuclear capability.
How opposing views on nuclear deterrence fracture the non-proliferation regime
European Leadership Network
Russia’s nuclear threats and posturing have heightened anxieties in Europe over possible escalation into nuclear war. In light of fears about …
Opinion | 80 years after bombing, nuclear threat is on the rise | Plain Talk by Dave Zweifel
The Capital Times
Russia has threatened to use them in Ukraine. Donald Trump repositioned three nuclear submarines armed with atomic missiles to answer a verbal threat …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program After the 12-Day War: A Diagram of the Destruction
Isis-online.org
During the 12-Day War, attacks by Israel and the United States destroyed Iranian facilities needed to make nuclear weapons — both facilities to …
Amid “No-First-Use Policy”, China Explands Its Nuclear Forces: Report – NDTV
NDTV
The defense ministry in Beijing said “a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be waged.” China, it said, adhered to a “nuclear strategy of self- …
China’s growing nuclear arsenal | Reuters
Reuters
… nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear armed state. … In response to questions, the defense ministry in Beijing said “a nuclear war cannot be won and …