diff --git a/lib/javame/src/org/apache/thrift/protocol/TJSONProtocol.java b/lib/javame/src/org/apache/thrift/protocol/TJSONProtocol.java
index 32b7327be63..afc5914bfd9 100644
--- a/lib/javame/src/org/apache/thrift/protocol/TJSONProtocol.java
+++ b/lib/javame/src/org/apache/thrift/protocol/TJSONProtocol.java
@@ -682,20 +682,20 @@ private TByteArrayOutputStream readJSONString(boolean skipContext)
         ch = reader_.read();
         if (ch == ESCSEQ[1]) {
           trans_.readAll(tmpbuf_, 0, 4);
-          short cu = (short)(
-              ((short)hexVal(tmpbuf_[0]) << 12) +
-              ((short)hexVal(tmpbuf_[1]) << 8) +
-              ((short)hexVal(tmpbuf_[2]) << 4) +
-              (short)hexVal(tmpbuf_[3]));
+          char cu = (char)(
+              (hexVal(tmpbuf_[0]) << 12) +
+              (hexVal(tmpbuf_[1]) << 8) +
+              (hexVal(tmpbuf_[2]) << 4) +
+              hexVal(tmpbuf_[3]));
           try {
-            if (isHighSurrogate((char)cu)) {
+            if (isHighSurrogate(cu)) {
               if (highSurrogate != 0) {
                 throw new TProtocolException(TProtocolException.INVALID_DATA,
                     "Expected low surrogate char");
               }
               highSurrogate = cu;
             }
-            else if (isLowSurrogate((char)cu)) {
+            else if (isLowSurrogate(cu)) {
               if (highSurrogate == 0) {
                 throw new TProtocolException(TProtocolException.INVALID_DATA,
                     "Expected high surrogate char");
diff --git a/lib/javame/test/TestJSONUnicodeEscapes.java b/lib/javame/test/TestJSONUnicodeEscapes.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cee20cfaa18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/javame/test/TestJSONUnicodeEscapes.java
@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.apache.thrift.protocol.TJSONProtocol;
+import org.apache.thrift.transport.TMemoryBuffer;
+
+/**
+ * A JSON string can carry any UTF-16 code unit as an escape: a backslash, 'u'
+ * and four hex digits. The reader has to turn each escape back into the UTF-8
+ * encoding of that character, in the upper half of the Basic Multilingual
+ * Plane (U+8000 to U+FFFF) as well as below it, and a surrogate pair into the
+ * supplementary character it stands for.
+ */
+public class TestJSONUnicodeEscapes {
+
+  private static int checks = 0;
+  private static int failures = 0;
+
+  private static void check(boolean ok, String what) {
+    checks++;
+    if (ok) {
+      System.out.println("ok   - " + what);
+    } else {
+      failures++;
+      System.out.println("FAIL - " + what);
+    }
+  }
+
+  private static final char BACKSLASH = (char) 92;
+
+  private static String hex4(int codeUnit) {
+    String hex = Integer.toHexString(codeUnit);
+    while (hex.length() < 4) {
+      hex = "0" + hex;
+    }
+    return hex;
+  }
+
+  /** The JSON escape of one UTF-16 code unit, with lowercase hex digits. */
+  private static String escape(int codeUnit) {
+    return BACKSLASH + "u" + hex4(codeUnit);
+  }
+
+  private static String describe(String s) {
+    StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer();
+    for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
+      if (i > 0) {
+        b.append(' ');
+      }
+      b.append("U+").append(hex4(s.charAt(i)));
+    }
+    return "[" + b.toString() + "]";
+  }
+
+  /** Reads one JSON string value, given as the text between its quotes. */
+  private static String read(String body) throws Exception {
+    byte[] json = ('"' + body + '"').getBytes("UTF-8");
+    TMemoryBuffer buffer = new TMemoryBuffer(json.length);
+    buffer.write(json, 0, json.length);
+    return new TJSONProtocol(buffer).readString();
+  }
+
+  private static void checkRead(String body, String expected, String what) {
+    String actual = null;
+    String problem = null;
+    try {
+      actual = read(body);
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      problem = e.toString();
+    }
+    boolean ok = expected.equals(actual);
+    check(ok, what + (ok ? "" : ", got " + (problem != null ? problem : describe(actual))));
+  }
+
+  private static void checkEscape(int codeUnit) {
+    checkRead(escape(codeUnit), String.valueOf((char) codeUnit),
+        "the escape of U+" + hex4(codeUnit) + " reads as that character");
+  }
+
+  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
+    // below U+8000
+    int[] lower = { 0x0041, 0x00e9, 0x07ff, 0x0800, 0x7fff };
+    for (int i = 0; i < lower.length; i++) {
+      checkEscape(lower[i]);
+    }
+
+    // from U+8000 up, below and above the surrogate range
+    int[] upper = { 0x8000, 0xd7ff, 0xe000, 0x9a41, 0xffff };
+    for (int i = 0; i < upper.length; i++) {
+      checkEscape(upper[i]);
+    }
+
+    // a surrogate pair, U+1F600
+    String pair = String.valueOf(new char[] { (char) 0xd83d, (char) 0xde00 });
+    checkRead(escape(0xd83d) + escape(0xde00), pair,
+        "the escapes of a surrogate pair read as the supplementary character");
+
+    // escapes mixed with plain characters
+    String expected = "a" + (char) 0x00e9 + (char) 0x8000 + "b" + (char) 0x9a41 + pair + "c";
+    checkRead("a" + escape(0x00e9) + escape(0x8000) + "b" + escape(0x9a41)
+        + escape(0xd83d) + escape(0xde00) + "c", expected,
+        "escapes between plain characters read in place");
+
+    System.out.println("\n" + checks + " checks, " + failures + " failures");
+    if (failures > 0) {
+      System.exit(1);
+    }
+  }
+}