Fred Hargesheimer Major Fred Hargesheimer ( May 7 , 1916December 23 , 2010 ) was a former pilot of the USAAF who was shot down during World War II over Papua New Guinea in June 1943 . He later became a philanthropist who helped out the village that had hidden him from the Japanese . Early life . Hargesheimer was born and raised in Rochester , Minnesota . He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State College in 1940 before moving to Alpine , New Jersey , to work for FM radio pioneer Edwin H . Armstrong . World War II . Hargesheimer served with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron of the U . S . Army Air Corps during World War II . He was flying a Lockheed P - 38F - 4 on a photo reconnaissance mission on June 5 , 1943 , over the island of New Britain , Papua New Guinea , when his plane was attacked by a Japanese Ki - 45 Nick fighter . Despite his injuries and jammed canopy , he was able to parachute to safety . For the next month he fought to survive in the jungle . He was found by members of the Nakanai tribe after 31 days . They sheltered him for five months in the village of Ea Ea , risking their lives to protect him from being found by Japanese soldiers . He met up with Australian Coastwatchers who moved him inland . On February 5 , 1944 , Fred , along with other downed airmen , was rescued by the submarine . He was awarded the Purple Heart , the Silver Star , the Distinguished Flying Cross , the Air Medal , and the Asiatic - Pacific Campaign Medal . After the war , he returned to his hometown of Rochester , Minnesota , where he raised a family of his own . Philanthropy . Hargesheimer corresponded with a missionary to learn how the tribe that kept him safe had fared and in 1960 returned to the island . He was told that they needed a school . He came home and raised $ 15 , 000 over three years , " most of it $ 5 and $ 10 gifts , " and then returned with son Richard in 1963 to contract for the construction of the school . The simple four - room schoolhouse became known as the Airmen ' s Memorial School * . Hargesheimer returned many times for the next 40 years , building a library as well as infrastructure for the village of Ea Ea , now known as Nantabu . From 1970 to 1974 he and his wife , Dorothee , lived there . He was known by the locals as Mastah Preddi , a corruption of Master Freddie . In 2000 , he was proclaimed " Suara Auru , " or " Chief Warrior " in the native language . Hargesheimer returned in 2006 for his last visit . During the trip , he visited the site where the wreckage of his old P - 38 had been recently found . Hargesheimer also attended the opening of a new library at the Noau school . Contact with his attacker . In 1999 , aided by amateur Japanese historians of World War II , he contacted the wife of the man who had shot him down . He had always wondered why the pilot had never taken the time to finish him off when he was parachuting to the ground . By then the man , Mitsugu Hyakutomi of Yamaguchi , Japan , was suffering from Alzheimer ' s disease . His wife said that her husband had always said that he could never shoot down such defenseless parachuting fliers . Death . He died in Lincoln , Nebraska , on December 23 , 2010 .