Family Environmental History
July 14, 2025 By: Kai Maekawa
My family’s environmental history stretches across countries, connecting distant places like Vancouver Island, Canada, and Niigata, Japan. By reflecting on the environments where my grandparents, parents, and I have lived, I aim to illustrate how our identities, livelihoods, and values have been shaped by our relationship with nature.
My Canadian grandfather grew up on Vancouver Island, an area significantly changed by forestry. His own father emigrated from Denmark and contributed directly to Canada’s growth by helping build the Pan-Canadian railway, which demanded extensive logging and reshaped local forests dramatically. Later, my grandfather became a carpenter, relying indirectly on the region’s forests for timber used in constructing homes. My Canadian grandmother was raised in Victoria, also on Vancouver Island. Her family had roots in Cornwall, Britain and was involved in garment and other commodities trading. Her family moved to Victoria in 1910 when it was still a small town; during her lifetime, Victoria evolved from a small colonial town into a modernized urban center, significantly altering the harbour from a natural estuary to a bustling, industrialized port.
Across the Pacific, my Japanese grandparents originated from the Ishikawa prefecture but eventually settled in Niigata, a coastal city extensively altered by human engineering. Large-scale infrastructure projects like levees and land reclamation had transformed the local environment significantly in Niigata. My grandfather worked in trade, reflecting Niigata’s crucial role as a commercial and transportation hub, while my grandmother taught at a local school.
By the time my grandparents arrived in Niigata, its landscape had already been reshaped by decades of engineering projects designed to control natural forces. Following severe flooding from the Shinano River in 1896, authorities constructed the Okotsu Diversion Channel, a ten-kilometre canal intended to prevent future disasters and to protect agriculture and trade. These efforts created an environment that seemed secure but concealed underlying vulnerabilities. In 1964, a powerful earthquake struck, liquefying the reclaimed delta soil and causing apartment blocks visible from my grandmother’s classroom to tilt alarmingly. I remember my grandparents sharing their memories of past earthquakes and stories during this time, especially when I experienced the major earthquake in 2011 myself. Just one year later in 1965, industrial pollution introduced another crisis: mercury contamination from a chemical plant led to the devastating Niigata Minamata disease, altering local perceptions about food safety and environmental health. It is considered to be one of the four major environmental pollution happened in Japan. My grandfather’s business faced new uncertainties as local products were viewed with suspicion, similar to what happned in Fukushima after 2011.
My parents’ generation observed significant economic and environmental transformations in Niigata and Vancouver Island. Growing up during rapid industrialization and urban growth, they saw firsthand the loss of natural spaces to development.
My personal experience has encompassed diverse environments, including rural Nago in northern Okinawa, a coastal region characterized by coral reefs and subtropical forests. Daily, my interactions with nature are integral to both my professional and personal lives. Working as a weekend scuba diving instructor, I regularly witness the vulnerability of coral reefs. The severe coral bleaching event last year deeply affected me, where up to 80% of table corals (Acropora corals) were decimated, making clear how rapidly environmental conditions can deteriorate. Additionally, witnessing the extensive land reclamation for military purposes in Henoko has significantly shaped my environmental consciousness. It definitely heightened my awareness of ecological integrity and environmental justice; observing the transformation of mountains and beaches for infrastructure projects has made me thinking and lead me to wanting to protect and restore natural ecosystems.
Currently, my role as an environmental consultant allows me to support businesses in assessing their ecological impacts, setting sustainability goals, and adopting environmentally friendly practices among other things. In a world where corporations have so much power, I believe it is especially important to hold companies accountable for the environmental impacts they create. Also, I live by a simple rule: I always pick up at least three pieces of trash whenever I visit the beach. It’s a small commitment, but it helps me stay mindful of my own responsibility to take action for the environment.
In the end, traditional Japanese gardens stand out to me as living examples of how human can coexist with nature in the historical sense. I used to visit UBC’s Japanese garden often and the garden shows how humans have shaped nature thoughtfully, blending cultural values with landscape over centuries. I agree that when society interact with nature, our environments are never purely “natural” as they are always shaped by human choices, values, and priorities over time. This reminds me that my own actions, even small ones, contribute to the ongoing story of the places I live in; Zen-themed Japanese garden, with its careful balance, inspires me to approach my own relationship with the environment in a more intentional and responsible way which I think should be appreciated more in the modern world.