Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company

The tale of an 11-year-old Chinese boy who was befriended by a company of U.S. Marines sent to China shortly after two atomic bombs ended the war with Japan in 1945. 33 photos. 2 maps.

This is the tale of an eleven-year-old Chinese boy, Tsui Chi Hsii - better known by his American name Charlie Tsui, or Charlie Two Shoes - who was befriended by a company of U.S. Marines sent to China in 1945 shortly after the end of World War II. Malnourished and often cold, Charlie lived in a mud hut just beyond the barbed wire protecting the men of Love Company, 4th Marines, 1st Marine Division. The Marines gave him food and clothing, taught him English, sent him to church, and paid for his schooling. But when the communists took over China in 1949, Love Company was forced out of the country, and Charlie was left behind. Back home the Marines moved on with their lives, yet they could not forget their young friend. Charlie, refusing to denounce his connection with the Americans, suffered immensely at the hands of the Maoist government. After thirty-five years, seventeen as a political prisoner, he finally managed to contact some of his old Marine Corps friends. They, in turn, joined together again to help bring Charlie to America. Numerous obstacles had to be overcome, but eventually, with irrepressible pluck, Charlie made his way to the United States in 1983, and two years later he was able to bring his family to this country as well - a true realization of the American dream.