Captive to tourist attraction

Hitomi Soga, from left, daughters Brinda and Mika, and husband Charles Robert Jenkins are reunited in Jakarta, Indonesia. Soga, who was abducted and taken to North Korea in 1978, was repatriated to Japan in 2002. Jenkins, who deserted his Army unit in 1965, risked extradition to the U.S. and a court-martial once he was in Japan, so the family met up in Indonesia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

Sept. 16, 2014 2:57 PM PT

U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins, second from right, arrives at Camp Zama on the outskirts of Tokyo after leaving the prison at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, in November 2004. He was to stay at Camp Zama with his family for several days before moving to his wife’s hometown in northern Japan. (Eric Talmadge / Associated Press)

Charles Robert Jenkins, left, reports to provost marshal Lt. Col. Paul Nigara at Camp Zama in Japan in September 2004. Jenkins, accused of deserting the U.S. Army for North Korea in 1965, turned himself over to the U.S. military in a step toward his possible resettlement in Japan. (Toshifumi Kitamura / Agence France-Presse)

Charles Robert Jenkins poses with the life-size replica he calls the dummy that his bosses produce for tourists in Jenkins’ absence from the souvenir shop where he works in Japan. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

U.S. Army deserter and former North Korea captive Charles Robert Jenkins poses with Japanese tourists, who view him as a national celebrity. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)