Whose crazy idea was this?

I got this off the 6th division website. Some really neat facts-this was when my grandpa went into the war with the 20th infantry.
please read the underlined parts and you'll see what I mean

III. The End of the War.
Otto Marinich, of the 63rd Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, Company C, who won two bronze stars (one for his bravery in the terraced rice paddies of Northern Luzon and another for manning a flame thrower) and two purple hearts, recalled that it was General Yeon of the 63rd Infantry Regiment who volunteered his regiment to go after Yamashita. General Yeon wanted Yamashita himself because he had gone to school in the states with him and wanted to capture him. According to Marinich, a captured P-38 flyer was the person that helped negotiate the surrender of Yamashita when he surrendered from his last remaining stronghold. The 6th Division trucks were the ones that were to be used to transport the Japanese prisoners down the highway. As part of the surrender process soldiers along the highway were ordered to salute the surrendering forces. The 63rd Infantry, refused and so it was ordered 500 feet back off of the highway while the Japanese prisoners were transported into custody.
Casualties in the Cordilleras were 432 wounded and 99 killed. The Japanese lost 7,792 with 925 who surrendered before the war was over. During the Luzon campaign alone the 6th Division had killed 20,480 enemy and captured 1,369 others. The rate of death for the Japanese had been 100 soldiers a day. During the same period the Division lost 853 killed in action or dead of wounds, 3122 wounded and 6 missing. At the War’s end the 6th Division were the most heavily engaged troops in the United States Army still fighting the forces of Japan. Those not returning home were eventually assigned to Inchon Korea where they would remain while policing the process of surrender of the Japanese troops still in Korea.
For most of the men of the 6th Division returning home, it would still be months before they did return. During this time, most, near exhaustion, were fed and nursed back to health while being briefed and essentially deprogrammed. After 306 days of combat, the last 219 being continuous, all including even the medics, had learned to kill automatically. The men of the 6th Division had to gradually get used to the idea of not killing and not killing Japanese. They had to get used to the idea of no longer living with a rifle as a constant companion. In the years to come, many would continue to experience the effects of the war, including bouts of Malaria and flashbacks. Most would overcome these scars, repress memories of the worst horrors of the War and learn to appreciate the simple joys of life. All would be changed the ordeal, their survival and the loss of so many friends who sacrificed their lives at the peak of their youth.


and they were expected to salute the same people that had spent years shooting at them and killing their friends! That must be one of those crazy things the men behind the desks think up

 

I agree Krystal - some high ranking Army official Stateside probably thought it up during some lull in his day.