Charley has traveled extensively to over 35 countries during the last 50 years.   His most recent trip was to Japan in the winter of 2018.  The purpose of the trip was a symbolic journey of peace.  His mission was to return the flag belonging to a fallen World War ll Japanese soldier who was killed by Charley’s fathers’ unit in New Guinea in 1944.   Charley had the writing on the flag translated and discovered that it belonged to a soldier from the town of Fukuchiyama, Japan.  With the assistance of several individuals in Japan and San Jose, he was able to contact the World War ll Bereavement Society of Fukuchiyama located 200 miles south of Tokyo.

 

In a moving ceremony, covered by numerous Japanese newspapers, the Society graciously accepted the flag.  Charley told the audience that he believed that he had returned the spirit the fallen soldiers whose blood stained the flag home.  In returning of the flag, he was both honoring the memory of his father and the fallen Japanese soldier.  He also explained that as a Viet Nam War veteran he hoped that we would never have blood-stained flags again.

 

Charley received degrees’ from UC Berkeley and San Jose State in Ethnic Studies.  He taught college for 15 years before he began his writing and publishing career.    His company Chusma House has published 25 books by different writers.   Charley Trujillo is a Viet Nam War veteran who co-directed and produced a 2003 POV film Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam based on his award-winning book of the same name. He has published a Viet Nam War novel titled Dogs from Illusion and a screenplay of the same name.  He is currently writing a fictional memoir The Real Life of a Dead Chicano: Patas de Perro.  His latest film project is about the experience of two former Chicano Korean War POWs that he plans for national broadcast.  He has recently launched an ethnic studies learning channel directed toward colleges and universities.  In one of the videos, he gives a lecture/documentary on the legendary California outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez.  Over 60 universities and colleges have used his books and films.  He has also given lectures and presentations at many of these institutions.