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This book originated from interviews conducted by the author James Dawes with "China Returners", veterans of World War II. These were men who had committed the most atrocious crimes in their youth, yet dedicated the rest of their lives to anti-war preaching. The author interprets their wartime memories with a novelist's style, connects the themes of the book, and brings together thoughts on "evil" from multiple disciplines such as philosophy, literature, religion, and social psychology to restore the truth, causes, background, and hidden meanings of "evil." The author also uses this to explore a series of problems and paradoxes caused by reproducing trauma, as well as how we should deal with the dark sides of human nature such as evil and cruelty, and how effective "empathy" can be in this process. This difficult exploration of human nature will be answered after reading this book.