The Memory Police

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What effect did Ogawa’s choice to leave the protagonist and the island unnamed have on your emotional connection to the story?

2. The Memory Police shares themes of state control with George Orwell’s 1984, but it approaches these ideas through a more dreamlike lens. In what ways does Ogawa’s poetic style either enhance or diminish the political impact compared to Orwell’s direct approach?

3. Which aspect of the novel’s portrayal of disappearances—objects, books, or body parts—did you find most disturbing? Why?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Which aspects of your identity would be most difficult to preserve if the concepts and objects associated with them suddenly vanished as they do in the novel?

2. If you had to choose between forgetting with everyone else or remembering everything alone like R and the protagonist’s mother, which would you choose? Why?

3. Which objects in your life hold the strongest sensory associations? What memories do they evoke when you encounter them?

4. In what ways have you used creativity as a form of resistance or preservation in your own life?

5. The old man tells the protagonist that “as things got thinner, more full of holes, our hearts got thinner too” (54). Reflect on a time when a significant loss changed how you perceive the world around you.

6. What meaningful activity would you continue practicing even if you gradually forgot its purpose?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. How might The Memory Police, published in Japan in 1994 but translated into English in 2019, resonate differently with readers today than with its original audience?

2. How does the novel’s portrayal of state control over collective memory reflect real-world authoritarian tactics?

3. The Memory Police officers justify their actions by saying they’re helping citizens by removing “useless memories” (106). How does this rationalization mirror language used to justify censorship and information control in our world? How do definitions of usefulness serve authoritarian goals? Can redefining usefulness be an act of resistance?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does the story-within-a-story structure deepen the novel’s themes of memory and resistance?

2. Ogawa decided to have body parts “disappear” while remaining physically present. What commentary does this offer about the relationship between perception, memory, and physical reality?

3. Track the evolving descriptions of hearts throughout the novel. What does this suggest about the relationship between memory and emotional connection?

4. Why might Ogawa deliberately leave most human characters unnamed while giving names to animals like Don the dog and Mizore the cat?

5. What might the unrelenting snowfall represent in the novel? What emotions does it evoke? 

6. How does the protagonist’s changing relationship with language and writing reveal the connection between memory and resistance?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. If you were creating one of the protagonist’s mother’s sculptures, what disappeared object from your own life would you hide inside it? Why?

2. Imagine writing an additional chapter that takes place after the novel ends—what would happen to R and the island?

3. The Memory Police shares themes with Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, particularly regarding the gradual loss of self. If you were to combine elements from both novels to create a new story, what elements would you preserve from each?

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