text from novel the memory police 1/2: "The dark green trucks with canvas covers appeared more often on the streets. Sometimes they would race by, covers rolled up, sirens blaring, and at other times they would trundle heavily along, covers down. In the gap between the canvas and the bed of the truck, you could catch a glimpse of someone's shoe or a suitcase or the hem of a coat. The methods used by the Memory Police were becoming more and more brutal. No longer were there advance warnings of their visits, like the one my mother had received. Everything happened by surprise, and they now carried heavy battering rams capable of breaking down any door. They invaded houses in search of any space where someone could be hidden-storage rooms, under beds, in the back of closets. If there was enough space for one human body, it was unlikely to escape their atten-tion. They dragged out anyone they found, along with those who had hidden them, and loaded them all in the covered trucks. There had been no further widespread disappearances since the roses, but it became increasingly common to hear that some-one had suddenly vanished a friend from the next town, an..."
text from the memory police continued 2/2: "...acquaintance from school, a distant relative of the fishmonger. You never knew whether they had been taken away or had been fortunate enough to find a place to hide-or if the place they'd been hiding had been discovered and they'd been arrested. Nor did anyone try very hard to find out. Regardless of what had happened, it was almost certainly an unfortunate event, and, moreover, simply talking about it could put you in danger. If on occasion a whole household suddenly went missing with no warning at all, the neighbors would simply pass their house with a furtive glance at the windows, hoping that the former inhabi-tants were safe somewhere. The citizens of the island were by now quite accustomed to these losses."
yoko ogawa, the memory police
