Occupation photographer Donald Richie recalls: "There [in the station corridors], sitting or lying on straw mats or the bare concrete, are some of the thousands of the hungry homeless. Men, women, a few children. In one photo, they are being inspected by two bespectacled policemen wearing mouth masks. Many of the people are dirty, and all wear remnants of what they had owned during the war: cracked shoes, torn blouses, battered hats, buttonless shirts. But no one looks sad. Everybody is smiling--everybody except the policemen, and maybe they are as well beneath their masks. Smiling for the camera, making a good impression, best foot forward. Even in the depths of national poverty everyone rememebers this."

From: Richie, Donald. The Japan Journals 1947—2004. Ed. Leza Lowitz. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press; 9-10.