"The Rice ration--or haikyu--in a suburban Tikyo neighborhood (Nishi Ogikubo). Rice rationing persisted for several years after the surrender, since production of the staple food had been disturbed as a result of wartime activities. The women are the neighborhood housewives, using the wait for the ration as an opportunity to chat. Accompanying one of the ladies is her toddler in a basket-type perambulator. The woman on the far right is wearing the standard wartime heavy winter costume, including the baggy pants called monpe."

From: Bennett, John W. Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir, 2002, http://library.osu.edu/
sites/rarebooks/japan/2_1_photos.html.