Last night on the Canadian version of the History Channel there was a show about a Canadian pilot:

Lt. Hampton Grey, V.C.

He was the last Canadian to die in WW 2.
And somewhat of a mystery...

He was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for pressing home an attack on Japanese naval shipping in Onagawa Bay, about 500 miles north of Tokyo. It was a target rich environment, including a Japanese battleship and Grey led his squadron in to attack the warships.

He was a Canadian flying American Corsair fighter-bombers off a British carrier. He was, in fact, senior pilot commanding his squadron.

Previously, he'd been on the attack that sank the German battleship 'Tirpitz'. His first actual combat mission. He was an ace, with at least 5 kills to his credit.

His last mission was just after the Hiroshima bombing, and just before the Nagasaki bombing.

His last act was to sink a Japanese destroyer, and it's considered amazing he managed that much because his plane was shot to pieces.

Some of those pieces fell on and around Japanese civilians fleeing the air raid and who witnessed him leading his squadron's attack.

A 500pd. bomb was shot clean off his aircraft.
And what brought him down was his propeller spinning right off his fighter. He didn't survive the crash that followed.

Despite all this info, the man's still somewhat of a mystery. That mystery is this:

He's the ONLY foreign soldier from an enemy nation that the Japanese erected a W.W. 2 memorial to on Japanese soil.

For once, I don't know the details of something.
Namely why that is.

It's something so totally bizarre to my mind that I want to know why they did that for him.

And I'd like to know, so here's your chance.

Cheers mate, great info.

I saw the same show friend!
Japanese erecting him a memorial is as bizarre as the Americans buriing a kamikaze pilot with full military honour.
I think the Japanese did erect the memorial because even they noticed how brave his act was.
Actually the second bomb that stayed on his aircraft he managed to release in time to hit the dd's forward magazin. The ship blew up and what was the casualty? Like 50 dead
Than he crashed as he passed the dd

Once again truth is more shocking than anything hollywood could dream up.

I think the death toll aboard that destroyer was way higher: 171 or some such.
Most, if not all, of the crew it would seem.

And here's another question for everyone reading this: Just what was the crew complement of a Japanese tin can in WW 2? I dunno'. Does anyone?

At any rate, it sank and moments later he died.

The one thing I half-expected from that documentary was a dive to the bottom of the bay to try and find the wreck of the plane.

You'd think Veteran's Affairs (part of the Canadian government) would pay to have it raised and brought home as a monument or some such.

Another show about another Canadian aviator saw the sole survivor of a Wellington bomber that went down over England tracking down the spot where his plane crashed, and where his crew died. He's going home with some wreckage that they managed to find with a metal detector.

I wished they'd do even that much for Lt. Grey.
Same as I wish I knew just why they put up that memorial like that. I'm glad they did. I just wish I knew the exact reasons why.

His Name was :Robert Hampton Gray,
Royal Canadian Volunteer Naval Reserve
He also was awarded with :
DSC,1939-145 Star,Atlantic Star,Africa Star,Pacific Star,Defence Medal,
Canadian Volunteer Medal with Bar
War Medal 1939-1945 with Oak Leaf.
For his Part at the attack on the Tirpitz he was mentioned in dispatches.
He was a Member of 1841 Sqd.Fleet Air Arm Flying of HMS Formidable.CO of 1841 Sqd.was LCdr
Richard Biggs-Withe.
The Memorial and the crain which was built by the Japanese is located at the Sakiyama Peace Park which overlooks Onagawa Bay.
The Destroyer he sank at 9th August 1945 was the Amakusa.

PS:His VC is on loan to the Canadian War Museum.

Thanks kindly KongOtto!

Something else I forgot to mention I'd learned is that his mother was a Silver Cross Mother twice.

That's a medal no mother wants to receive from the government here: It's for a losing a son or daughter in a battle zone.

Grey's younger brother died in the European Theatre earlier in the war.