Milestones Icon: Lafayette Florist

Lafayette Florist founders Yasutaro and his wife Kumiko (Kate) Yoshihara managed to overcome a four-year detour to a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II to build the foundation for their more than 50-year-old business.

The Yoshiharas ran a successful lettuce and produce stand in California for several years before the United States entered World War II in 1941.

After the war started, the couple and their children were moved from California to Camp Amache, a Japanese-American internment camp in southeastern Colorado. When the family was released from the camp at the end of the war in 1945, they decided to stay…