Joe Shinoda

Joseph Kazuhiro Shinoda was born in St. John's, Newfoundland into a Japanese-Canadian fishing family.  Following the death of his wife, Kazunari Shinoda became alcoholic, despondent and abusive, eventually causing Joseph to become a child of the State. Joseph shifted between foster families, never quite fitting in due to developing a rebellious attitude toward authority figures.  Joseph and his father eventually reconciled, and the teenager was able to put enough effort to his education to be accepted by University College of London.


Life among the Afghans
Shinoda graduated with degrees in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies and conducted his Master's and doctoral research in Afghanistan on behalf of the Coalition, who wanted to better understand political organization in remote parts of the country. Specifically, his research interest was the rough and tumble Shinwari Pashtun, a stubborn and hardy people in a backwater part of Nangarhar Province.  Though initially regarded as an unwanted outsider, he was protected from Taliban-aligned individuals under the hospitality aspects of Pashtunwali, meaning that his village was forced to protect him.  Furthermore, his understanding of Pashto language and cultural subtleties, his willingness to assist in village life, and his connections to regional tribal leadership meant he slowly became accepted as a trusted social and political figure.

In the meantime, he fell into the company of a village of rural artisan gunsmiths, and he became intimately familiar with the production and use of cheaply made, antiquated firearms copied from previous invasions of the country.  Already seen as a social necessity among Pashtun, guns remained in high value in the numerous gun bazaars in larger towns, even knock-off rifles from the 19th century. Joseph became heavily involved with this local industry, occasionally crossing the border to the bazaars in Pakistan. While conducting this project, the Portal Storms arrived. Always unlucky with paperwork and transportation, Shinoda and his research colleagues, Gerald Singh and Lisa Wilkinson, were unable to board the last Coalition aircraft out of the country, eventually losing contact with his wife, daughter and father in Canada.

Without better options, the anthropologists integrated with their research area and became much more involved in the village's survival. Singh acted as an unofficial doctor across multiple villages, while Shinoda and Wilkinson also accompanied Shinwari tribesmen on horseback as they engaged in warfare over resources with other communities and the Taliban, which were now much more aggressive following the Xen invasion.

Relocation

Despite being a former stronghold of the Mujahideen during the Soviet Invasion and the Northern Alliance during the Coalition Invasion, Nangarhar Province was eventually swept over and Joseph and his fellow villagers were captured and sent to Kabul, the only city in Afghanistan that the Universal Union was able to reliably secure. Following the establishment of the Universal Union's dominance on Earth, Kabul (Later City 89) became one of the first Civil Metroplexes because of the massive human military presence in the region. Thanks to a mutual acquaintance in the new Civil Workers Union, Joseph was conscripted as a metalworker in the new Manufactory located there. After being removed from Kabul, he lost contact with Singh and Wilkinson, who were transferred elsewhere.

Eventually, Joseph was transferred to City 18, where he was unable to verify his metal working permit. Instead, he managed to be hired by City 18 Civil Administration as a supply clerk, a job he held for approximately 2 years. While he was known for his organizational skills and operational efficiency, he was occasionally subject to counter-espionage probes, as his flatmates were documented dissidents (and later anti-citizens). Joseph became intimiately aware of the political intrigue that occurred within the Civil Administration, particularly at this time, due to uncertainties regarding actual human authority and the corruption that exploited those.

As civil unrest and labor shortages increased in City 18, Joseph was hastily reassigned as a line worker at a budget weapons manufacturing plant for Conscripts and the Combine Civil Authority, and did not leave until the destruction of the city, at which point he fled and took the last Sten off the press.

While the Universal Union had attempted to evacuate as many citizens as possible, their efforts were halted by the sudden revolt of the Conscripts, who began fighting the Union as well as the local Resistance cells. Thousands of citizens, Joseph included, were caught in a 3-way urban conflict between the opposing sides. Order broke down without a functioning Civil Administration, and the lack of resources or infrastructure accentuated the already harsh winter.  City streets became deathtraps due to snipers, and roving squads of conscripts raped and pillaged their way through the city. Joseph himself wasn't evacuated until the following spring, when he and several others were forcibly removed from the city by Civil Protection units with access to the railroad.

The eruption of anti-civil activity had created a "Refugee Question" across the Universal Union, and millions of displaced people were hastily shifted around while the Union debated what to do with them. Joseph and fellow City 18 survivors were sent to City 08, where attempts were made to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into the standard work force, despite a generally unwelcoming populace.  Joseph battled severe Post-traumatic stress following his evacuation, and because he couldn't afford the mandated Mental Health Package, he fell into extreme depression, enough that most businesses would not hire him. By a stroke of luck, Joseph managed to be picked up by a distant relative who ran a noodle bar. Joseph was hired and eventually took over the business following the owner's untimely heart attack. During this time, his restaurant began to be harassed by a corrupt Japanese AdJ, who had taken a disliking to refugees, and an extreme disliking to Joseph's mixed heritage. At his business, the AdJ would smash dishes, rough up customers and Joseph himself.  Joseph had no recourse, as the Civil Administrator was intimidated into ignoring these incidents. Tensions came to a head when the AdJ arrested Joseph's entire apartment floor for failing to turn in an anti-citizen.

The citizens, almost exclusively consisting of City 18 refugees, were all summarily boarded onto trains and deported to Civil Labor Corrections Camp 1107, located in the barren tundra of Eastern Russia on the border with Mongolia. Joseph served two years in the camp, which forced its inmates to hard labor through coal mining and lumber processing. Additionally, camp guards maintained a fighting ring, forcing inmates to fight each other in bloody melee. Initially, Joseph found better use as a samizdat writer, due to his knowledge of Cyrillic, Japanese, and Arabic script.  This allowed him to essentially become a one-man publisher within the camp, reproducing and distributing bootleg books to inmates and camp staff alike.

One day, doctors from the Union arrived and randomly selected convicts for medical experimentation. Joseph was subject to a flagship study in the Union's sterilization program, where he was tested on his physical endurance and psychological capacity following numerous temporary and highly experimental sterilization methods, one of which proved so effective as to be permanent.

Eventually, the camp was vacated following an uprising by several inmates, but Joseph, too jaded to particularly care very much, remained in the destroyed and abandoned camp until authorities arrived to investigate. The doctors, who had eventually fled, were later arrested and purged for their cruel and unusual methods, partially due to his testimony. As a result, his anti-civil convictions were overturned, his criminal record completely cleared, and a battered and broken Shinoda was allowed to return to "normal" life.

While Joseph was never again convicted for an anti-civil activity, he still was transferred from city to city, with faulty paperwork or bureaucracy forcing him to leave a city before his papers could even be cleared. His year-long stay in City 17 has been the longest since his time in City 08 years before.  Because so much of his funds have been expended in transit or for various fees, Joseph's first 6 months in the city have been marked with poverty, only holding temporary jobs due to a slight paranoia of being reassigned. Even as a fully rostered and certified Civil Protection unit in JURY, an sprained ankle and a mix-up in transfer papers led him to be temporarily reassigned to City 22 without a clear means of returning or a reason for being there, yet it would be 6 months before he could attempt to return to his unit.

While Joseph is by all means very well-read and highly educated, he is extremely discrete about his past and in general, maintains a frugal, blue-collar lifestyle and a gruff, unglamorous demeanor, which he feels allows him to remain inconspicuous among his fellow citizens.