Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
The Memory Police: Introduction
The Memory Police: Plot Summary
The Memory Police: Detailed Summary & Analysis
The Memory Police: Themes
The Memory Police: Quotes
The Memory Police: Characters
The Memory Police: Symbols
The Memory Police: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Yoko Ogawa
Historical Context of The Memory Police
Other Books Related to The Memory Police
- Full Title: The Memory Police
- When Written: 1994 (translated into English 2019)
- Where Written: Ōsaka, Japan
- When Published: 1994
- Literary Period: Contemporary
- Genre: Dystopian, Science-Fiction, Magical Realism
- Setting: An unnamed island (likely in Japan)
- Climax: The unnamed narrator disappears, and R leaves the hidden room.
- Antagonist: The Memory Police
- Point of View: First Person
Extra Credit for The Memory Police
Eavesdropper. Ogawa doesn’t like being categorized as a strictly feminist writer, even though much of her writing centers on women. Rather, she says that when she is writing, she simply thinks of herself as an “eavesdropper” and that, to create a character, she just “peeks into their world and takes notes.”
Translation Trouble. The Japanese title of The Memory Police loosely translates to “secret” or “crystallization.” In this sense, the original title had less emphasis on the Memory Police themselves and more of a focus on the mysterious forces underpinning the disappearances on the island—supernatural, all-consuming forces that even the Memory Police cannot control.