Born in Tokyo, Taka Shibahara grew up in a middle-class family, the daughter of a technician at a paper mill, and a mother who designed elaborate kimonos. When American bombing intensified in March 1945, the family fled from Tokyo to the country. There, Taka worked in rice fields and attended a country school. Like all civilians, including school children, she was trained in fighting with a bamboo spear, in case the Americans invaded. Instead, she worked with GIs as a secretary at an air base near Tokyo after the war. There she met and later married a serviceman, Wayne Flippo. Taka became a military wife while Wayne spent a career in the Air Force before the couple retired in Bossier City.