Unemployed People Gather as They Seek Work 

This photograph shows the area around Sakuragicho Station four years after the end of the Second World War. At the time, the ward office and public employment security office were located near the station, so many people gathered there looking for work. People who loitered around without steady jobs and the day laborers who unloaded cargo at Yokohama Port (where the occupation ships arrived), were referred to as putaro. Various stalls serving the putaro soon appeared around Sakuragicho Station, which is close to the port, and for a while it was said that no matter what you were looking for you could find it there. Photographer and Yokohama-native Okumura Taiko took many photographs of the city in the post-war era, including of the women and children who sold goods and services to the occupation soldiers, war orphans, and returning Japanese soldiers. He also took cityscapes like this one.
(OSAWA Sayoko)