OOC Note
For this AU, Athrun's father, Patrick Zala, was an ambassador to Japan from an ambiguous European nation. He was pretty good at it, too -- until his wife, Lenore, was killed in a terrorist attack. After that happened, he slowly began to lose his sanity.
Athrun was as sane as ever, though, and took it upon himself to return to his home nation to work to get his father removed from his position. It worked, and Patrick was called back to his home nation. However, Athrun's actions got him disowned.
Now, this won't have gotten that much public attention in Japan, so if your character doesn't pay attention to the news or doesn't follow international politics, then odds are that he or she won't know about this. However, if your character does follow international politics, then there's a very good chance he or she will know about what Athrun did.
Also, because of his background, Athrun is not only Caucasian, but he's also fluent in both Japanese and English. So he'll be able to speak to Japanese characters without much trouble, and he'll also excel in his English classes. If your character ever needs English help, this is the person to turn to (after your character's English teacher, of course).
Athrun was as sane as ever, though, and took it upon himself to return to his home nation to work to get his father removed from his position. It worked, and Patrick was called back to his home nation. However, Athrun's actions got him disowned.
Now, this won't have gotten that much public attention in Japan, so if your character doesn't pay attention to the news or doesn't follow international politics, then odds are that he or she won't know about this. However, if your character does follow international politics, then there's a very good chance he or she will know about what Athrun did.
Also, because of his background, Athrun is not only Caucasian, but he's also fluent in both Japanese and English. So he'll be able to speak to Japanese characters without much trouble, and he'll also excel in his English classes. If your character ever needs English help, this is the person to turn to (after your character's English teacher, of course).