The author began writing this book as a study dedicated to the fate of repressed Japanese scholars (of the nine main characters in the book, seven are Japanese scholars). But when new materials about these people became known, it turned out that all of them, without exception, were connected with Russian or Soviet intelligence services. Some, like Oshchepkov or Kim, were full-time intelligence or counterintelligence employees, others, like Neznaiko or Yurkevich, were agents, secret employees. Therefore, when in the course of the work the author became aware of the manuscript of their contemporary, the “Japanese intelligence officer of Russian origin” - Igor Kovalchuk-Koval, it immediately became clear that the story about him also needed to be included in the book: after all, this is a look at the same events, the same historical background, but on the other hand, from the inside out. And so it happened that as a result, from a book about Japanese scholars, a book was turned out about those who, in one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, were connected with Japan, but tried not to advertise this connection, about those who kept in the shadows - in the shadow of the Rising Sun .