Charlie Two Shoes And The Marines Of Love Company - Hardcover

Peterson, Michael; Perlmutt, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557506728 ISBN 13: 9781557506726

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

David Perlmutt is a journalist at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina.

From Booklist

At the end of World War II in 1945, some U.S. Marines stationed in northern China befriended an 11-year-old boy who brought them food and firewood in exchange for money. The men nicknamed the resourceful lad Charlie Two Shoes and promised to bring him to the U.S. when their tour of duty ended. This heartwarming account tracks Charlie Two Shoes' life in China and his eventual reconciliation with his marine comrades nearly 50 years later. When relations softened between the two countries in 1980, the 45-year-old married father contacted his former marine buddies by mail. After years of bureaucratic haggles, Charlie Two Shoes and his family came to the U.S., where they remain today. A captivating chronicle of an amazing odyssey. Sue-Ellen Beauregard

Edition details

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1557506728
• ISBN 13: 9781557506726
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 214