In Yokohama in 1945, people queued in an orderly fashion at tram stops. An Australian War Memorial catalogue description notes similar lines outside shops selling provisions and at places where residents waited for trams.
The end of the war did not instantly restore ordinary transport. Limited vehicles and many passengers still required an answer to a simple question: who boards next? The queue became a small piece of infrastructure for a city beginning to move again. Public transport depended not only on rails and cars, but on an order passengers could share.