Recently, I finished reading the book “The Memory Police” (the English translation) by the Japanese author, Yoko Ogawa.
While not the most enjoyable book that I have read (that would be something like The Testaments or Garden of the Evening Mists), it was one of the most interesting I have read in a while - with its surreal and dream-like atmosphere.
Summary
The book follows a young writer, on an island where objects or concepts are inexplicably forgotten by a large? percentage of the populace. The removal of the relevant objects - and the disappearance of those who remember them - is enforced by the titular Memory Police. As a result, those who can remember, attempt to leave the island or hide in various safehouses, to evade capture.
One day, the writer’s editor, R, reveals himself to the author as being able to remember. This leads the writer and her friend, known only as “the old man”, to construct a safe house under the floorboards of her home to keep R safe.
The remainder of the story explores the relationship between these 3 characters, and their relationship with the wider society they live in. Eventually, even body parts begin to disappear, until only the author’s voice is left. Before disappearing, the author reassures R that he will be able to emerge from the safehouse and meet others who also still remember.
Where’s the Propaganda?
One of the things that struck me when reading this book was the arbitrariness of its premise. Unlike other totalitarian dictatorships, the Memory Police make no attempt to justify their own existence. There is no reason, not even a flimsy one, given to explain why disappeared objects must be removed or why those who remember must be taken away. The lack of propaganda lies in stark contrast to societies like those in 1984 or Nazi Germany, where control over the flow of information and ideas is used to brainwash the population to submit themselves to the regime.
The only explanation we see for the Memory Police’s existence is given by R.
R
This island is run by men how are determined to see things disappear. From their point of view, anything that fails to vanish when they say it should is inconceivable. So they force it to disappear with their own hands.
A similar desire for absolute power and control is expressed in 1984, where “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.” and “Power is not a means, it is an end.” Perhaps, the Memory Police too, need no better reason to exist than that.
This also reflects how in this society, information isn’t distorted. It’s simply forgotten and erased. Although its clear the disappearances of various objects predates the arrival of the Memory Police, they are responsible for the systemic removal of those objects and those who remember them.
Loss of Culture
On the day that roses disappeared, the writer states that:
The Writer
It’s always sad when a food disappears. In the past, the trucks at the market were overflowing with all sorts of things, but now the selection is meager at best. … I can no longer recall how green beans looked or tasted.
Later on, the writer finds a number of disappeared objects hidden within her mother’s sculptures. Among them, she finds a harmonica, a ferry-ticket and ramune (a lemon-flavoured candy). Despite holding these objects physically in her hands, the writer struggles to recall anything about these objects - only recalling how her mother kept the ferry-ticket in a drawer when she was young.
This is reminiscent of the long-lasting effects of cultural imperialism. In the US and Canada, boarding schools for Native American children were setup with the disturbing motto, “Kill the indian, save the man”. In these schools, native languages and cultural practices were forbidden and physical and sexual abuse was rampant. Many students who returned to their reservations felt alienated and faced language and cultural barriers, having lost their cultural identity. (Hultgren et al., 1989)
Even in cases where assimilation is not forced, part of the legacy of Western colonalism, has been the spread of Western culture at the expense of the culture of indigenious groups. This has resulted in the death of countless native tongues, with one language estimated to die out every 40 days (Simons, 2019).
Once languages and cultural practices have been lost, it is very difficult to reconstruct them, to bring them back. This is just like how the islanders lose their connection to disappeared objects, unable to appreciate and understand them in the same way again.
The Frog in a Boiling Pot
As objects disappear from the island one by one, there is a sense of loss that permeates the book - the characters feel it too. The question of where the gradual chain of disappearances will eventually lead to is brought up multiple times. Yet, the characters in the book are generally indifferent, choosing to adapt to the new normal and accepting the disappearances for what they are. When roses disappear, the writer meets an “elegantly dressed women”, who said without regret that the roses were “the last and most beautiful memento [she had] of [her] late father”, before throwing the roses away.
Even when the old man or the writer lose their livelihoods to the disappearances, they shrug it off with the old man telling the writer, “eventually you won’t even remember that you used to write novels.”
Earlier in the novel, the old man says this to the writer.
The Old Man
There’s nothing too terrible about things disappearing - or forgetting about them. And those Memory Police are after people who aren’t able to forget.
It reminds me of the following quote by Jason Stanley, a Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He recently announced his intention to take up a place at the University of Toronto, due the deteriorating political situation in the US (Shore et al., 2025), something that I too have contemplated.
Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy
You know you’re living in a fascist society when you’re constantly going over in your head the reasons why you’re safe. What we want is a country where none of us have to feel that way.
This gets to the heart of the issue with attitude of the old man and most of the islanders. The movement towards authoritarianism never occurs immediately. It begins with a small action, perhaps against a marginalised group to soften the blow. You might not be affected directly. But then another action is taken. Then another. And then another.
The disappearance of objects from the island is similarly gradual. It begins with the disappearance of small items, things the islanders could do without - perfume, emeralds, bells, ribbons. They can easily get used to it. In their minds, at least for now, the disappearances haven’t come for something important, like their jobs. However, people eventually begin losing more important things - birds, photographs, calendars, books. Yet, the previous disappearances “prepared” them for new ones, with the writer noting that “[he] doubts the changes seem as great to [most people] as they would to [R]”, who still remembers everything.
Even when the islander’s left legs disappeared, many of the islanders still shrug it off. For instance, an old man (not the old man) said it would be “nothing at all. … It’s just one more cavity that has opened up on the island. How is it any different from the others?“. Others expressed concern, such as the hatmaker, but by then it was too late to do anything.
There is an element of cognitive dissonance is at play here. The islanders do show doubts and worry that everything may not actually be fine. Yet, they still cling tightly to the idea that it will all be fine - to reassure themselves, to give themselves an excuse not to take action. After the disappearance of calendars, which we later learn leaves the island in eternal winter, the former hatmaker says:
The Former Hatmaker
Don’t worry. It’s no good overthinking this. Calendars are just scrap pieces of paper. Be patient. It will all work itself out.
with the writer noting that “[he] seemed to be reassuring himself as much as the rest of us”. I have seen this attitude expressed amongst some of my friends, with regards to the political situation in the US, as some are considering pursuing studies there.
“It’s going to be fine! But they have checks and balances!”, they say. But by now, the US has already done so many previously unthinkable things - blatantly violating the constitution, illegally deporting US citizens to a gulag and refusing to bring them back, sending in the military to deal with peaceful protestors - all in an attempt to shift the Overton window as far right as possible. When will it be too much?
This feeling is put aptly in this podcast I was recently listening to.
In it, the speaker says this.
Three Arrows - How To Dismantle a Democracy
In the past, I was always hesitant on my channel to use the term fascist, partially because I feel like we have an instinctive rejection for that term … I believe this comes from what the consequences would be from accepting that label. If the United States has a fascist government, what does that mean for me? It’s something very uncomfortable to have that historic responsibility thrust upon you.
So, will we draw a red line, and like the frog, jump out of the pot as the water heats to a boil? Or will we rest on our laurels as we are cooked alive?
The Will (and Ability) to Fight
In the novel, we are shown snippets of the writer’s new novel. It is about a girl who attends a typing class. Over the course of the class, she loses her voice. She has a romantic interest in the teacher of that class, who eventually kidnaps her into a clocktower when her typewriter breaks. However, when she has the opportunity to escape (when another student comes knocking on the clocktower), she is paralysed by fear and chooses to accept being trapped in the clocktower forever. This horror story seems to be intertwined with the writer’s fear of the losing her own voice and identity, amidst the disappearances.
After R has been hidden away in a safehouse within the writer’s house, the writer asks him to help her polish silver while regaling her with this story.
The Writer
I’ve heard that wealthy families used to employ whole teams of servants just to keep the silver polished. … They were strictly forbidden to speak, lest their breath cloud the silver, so the work took place in absolute silence. … The thing I found most surprising was that over time, the servants who did this work lost the power of speech.
This story is likely one of the sources of inspiration for the story we are shown within the novel. To me, this is an allegory for how easy it is to get comfortable within a totalitarian society.
In the writer’s story, when the student comes knocking on the door of the clockwork, the girl is paralysed by fear. With the loss of her voice, along with her failing eyesight, she lacks the courage to rejoin wider society. In fact, she even says that “[she] doesn’t hate [her captor] anymore” and that “[she] even feels a certain affection for him” (perhaps some kind of Stockholm Syndrome).
This reminds me of something that June, the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale said, once she finally had a taste of freedom while hiding in The Boston Globe.
June / Offred, The Handmaids Tale, Season 2 Episode 2
Is this what freedom looks like? Even this much is dizzying. Like an elevator with open sides. In the upper reaches of the atmosphere you’d come apart. You’d vaporize. There’d be no pressure to hold you together. We get so comfortable with walls. It doesn’t even take that long.
This reflects just how easy it is to get used to new circumstances within a totalitarian society (when you’re not on the naughty list). For ordinary people, especially those with little to no memory of anything that came before (like many of the islanders), it can be difficult to imagine anything different.
These stories also highlight the importance of using your rights, before they are lost. In the writer’s story, the inability of the girl to find the courage to alert the student to her presence leads to her eternal imprisonment. The servants who polished the silver lose their voice due to a long period of disuse. The islanders failure to resist while still early (e.g. by leaving the island before ferries disappeared) leads to the destruction of the islander’s society.
In fact, in the early stages of the disappearances, those who were unaffected could even have outnumbered those who were affected. When left legs disappear, the writer mentions that “the number of people who were taken away by the Memory Police suddenly increased”. It is hence unclear just how many people are actually affected by disappearances, bringing into question whether or not they are even a minority. This of course, represents the chilling effect that totalitarian societies have, causing people to be unable to trust each other and express their true feelings. As Offred from The Handmaids Tale put it:
Offred, The Handmaids Tale
I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.
There is also the idea of losing your individuality within the writer’s novel (reflecting her own fears). The girl’s captor states that “[the girl] has already been absorbed into this room”. In fascist ideology, there is the idea of the subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation. (Soucy, 2025) People are not treated as individuals with human rights but rather as tools and pawns.
This is also seen in the main story, where the loss of objects chips away at the writer’s (and everyone else’s) sense of identity, eventually just leaving behind a voice. When birds disappear, the writer loses the bond she shared with her father, who was an ornithologist. Later on, novels disappear and the writer loses a core part of her identity - her ability to express herself creatively through words. After the disappearance, her finds herself unable to write down a coherent sentence and only completes the story through “an extraordinarily circuitous route”.
This lack of identity, the sense of loss, quells dissent. When considering escaping, the girl in the writer’s story thinks:
The Girl
And even if she did help you, do you really believe you’d get back all the things you’ve lost?
Hopelessness and despair is a powerful tool. It is what the people in power what us to feel - to believe that resistance is futile. For instance, in order to halt progress on climate action, even when the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt around the globe, climate deniers have switched from simple climate denial to climate despair, stating things like
- The impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless
- Climate solutions won’t work
- Climate science and the climate movement are unreliable
This “New Denial” constituted 70% of denialist claims in 2023, up from 35% in 2018. (Center for Countering Digital Hate, 2023). See this great video for more information.
However, hope is just as powerful. As Emily Dickinson said, “Hope” is the thing with feathers.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, during public executions, the crimes of those being executed are no longer read out as the authorities noticed doing so would encourage a spate of similar crimes. They don’t want people to be aware of the possibility of resistance. They don’t want people to believe there is hope.
In the Memory Police, there remains a glimmer of hope which R holds onto. Even though the writer struggles to resist the disappearances, there are times when she is briefly able to remember. While throwing books into a fire, the writer suddenly remembers birds.
The Writer
I followed the arc of the last book … and suddenly I realised that, long ago, I had stood at this same window with my father and looked out at a similar sight. I took a deep breath and felt a slight pain, as though a spark had found its way into the bottomless swamp of my heart.
“A bird.”
Eventually, the writer is able to finish writing her novel (even though books already disappeared). And as the book closes, those who escaped the Memory Police, those who still remember, are finally able to re-emerge from their safehouses and rebuild society.
References
- Center for Countering Digital Hate. (2023). The New Climate Denial.
- Hultgren, M. L., Molin, P. F., & Green, R. (1989). To lead and to serve: American Indian education at Hampton Institute, 1878-1923.
- Shore, M., Snyder, T., & Stanley, J. (2025). Opinion | We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S. — nytimes.com.
- Simons, G. (2019). Two centuries of spreading language loss. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 4, 27. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v4i1.4532
- Soucy, R. (2025). Fascism. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.