I Am An American: Japanese American, Asian Cajun

In this engrossing story covering over 100 years of his family’s history, Walter Imahara describes the long and difficult road to success traveled by a Japanese-American family in the 20th century. Walter’s family lost everything when they were forced into wartime relocation camps in 1942. In 1945, they began from scratch in Louisiana. After returning from Army service as an officer, Walter launched a new family business, a nursery and landscape company that became one of the largest and best-known in Baton Rouge. Known as a hard-driving, goal-oriented executive, Walter was elected president of nursery and landscape professional organizations. Meanwhile, he had become one of the best weightlifters in the world, a six-time U.S. champion and gold medalist at the Pan American Games. After serving as Chairman of the International Weightlifting Federation Masters Committee, he retired to work on his life-long dream of creating botanical gardens to leave as a legacy to his family and to the people of Louisiana.