diff --git a/tools/dtoc/fdt_util.py b/tools/dtoc/fdt_util.py
index e6d523b9de65699ec08ebf863b1e614699d16b9c..b9dfae8d0e7b606c28fac252f82afcaef801fe49 100644
--- a/tools/dtoc/fdt_util.py
+++ b/tools/dtoc/fdt_util.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ def fdt32_to_cpu(val):
         A native-endian integer value
     """
     if sys.version_info > (3, 0):
+        if isinstance(val, bytes):
+            val = val.decode('utf-8')
         val = val.encode('raw_unicode_escape')
     return struct.unpack('>I', val)[0]