The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Vintage Books)

The Memory Police is a science fiction story written by Yoko Ogawa, author of The Housekeeper and the Professor and The Diving Pool. It was originally published as 密やかな結晶 (Hisoyaka na Kessho) in Japanese in 1994 and was first published in English in 2019 and was translated by Stephen Snyder.

Set on an unnamed island, everyday items are slowly disappearing. The story opens with the narrator who “wonders what was disappeared first”. Her mother had told her there were many things in the past, before her daughter was born. “Wonderful things you can’t possibly imagine.”

Her mother kept some of these things in a secret drawer and would encourage her daughter to open one and would tell her about the different objects she held in her hands. One day it may be a kind of fabric called a “ribbon” that people used to tie up their hair. This object “was disappeared” from the island when her mother was seven. Another was called a “bell” that if you shook would make a lovely sound. “Stamps” had also “been disappeared” from the island. Her mother explained it was something you used to send a letter to someone. 

No one knows why these things disappeared and everyone accepted it as a part of life on the island. People will wake up the next day and know that something has changed but with the disappearance of any items, the memory of the items disappears from the people’s thoughts as well. However, there were some people who didn’t forget. Some families tried to run away. 

The Inuis were the narrator’s neighbors. They came to the house late at night as they wanted to escape the Memory Police. They were also friends with the narrator’s mother. To repay the kindness of letting them stay one night at the house, the Inuis gave back three sculptures that the narrator’s mother had gifted to them many years ago. 

The narrator’s parents both died and she had been living alone in their house for the past two years. She works as a novelist and her only friends include her editor R and an old man who lives on an abandoned ferry who was a family friend. Life continued as normally as possible with the exceptions of more and more things disappearing. 

It is the job of The Memory Police to enforce the disappearances of objects and who also sought out people whose memories survived. Nobody knows what became of them but they were never to be seen in town again. The narrator began to worry about what would happen if words or books were to disappear. 

The narrator learned that her editor, “R” was one of those people who did not lose their memories. She decided she wanted to help hide him from the Memory Police. With the help of the old man, they built a secret room inside the house. The narrator told her editor that he would have to leave everything behind and leave without notice so the Memory Police wouldn’t suspect a thing. 

Things continued to disappear but most of the people were so used to the losses that they didn’t give a thought to the things that were gone. Then an earthquake struck. In the disaster the narrator’s mother’s sculptures were broken and she noticed there was something hidden inside. She showed them to her editor who told her that they were things “that were disappeared” long ago - a ferry ticket, a harmonica, and some candy called ramune. 

As the narrator predicted, books “were disappeared” but her editor encouraged her to continue writing and to hold on to the things her mother kept hidden, always telling her that he believes “they have the power to change you, to alter your hearts and minds. The slightest sensation can have an effect, can help you remember. These things will restore your memory.”

But will it affect the narrator? Will more things disappear. What will happen to the Memory Police when there is nothing left to remember? This is a most unusual story and is very reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 but Ogawa writes with a voice of her own. What would you do to preserve your memories? ~Ernie Hoyt