Unit 731

[Alexandra]

I HAD read about the events in Nanking. Maybe I read that book that Grey half-remembers? (...although I seem to recall covering the topic in school history classes) This did mean that I guessed the denouement.

However, I was not familiar with the activities of Unit 731, which Grey casually refers to a one point, in a manner which suggests that she expects the reader to know what she is talking about.

Now the premise of the book seems to be (reasonably enough) that the reader is unfamiliar with the atrocities perpetuated during the "rape of Nanking", yet it also assumes that the reader knows of the atrocities perpetrated by Unit 731.

So I was wondering:
how many readers DID know about Unit 731, but did NOT know the relevant details of the rape of Nanking? (I am thinking of the specific atrocity that made such an impression on Grey.)