The History of Fighting

These pictures were taken during Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s by Kenneth Jarecke in a bid to show the American general public the realities of war. In the top picture, Iraqi prisoners of war were photographed after being captured by the U.S. military on their way to Baghdad. The middle picture shows a burned-out Iraqi truck surrounded by corpses on the “Highway of Death.” When asked why he needs to take photographs of scenes like this by a military public relations officer, Jarecke told the officer that he he didn't want his mother to see his name next to photos of corpses. “but if I don’t take pictures like these, people like my mom will think war is what they see in movies.”

The bottom picture is a harrowing scene of an Iraqi soldier burned alive while trying to escape from his truck after it caught fire, When Jarecke photographed it he thought it would change the way people in the US viewed the Gulf War however to his bemusement, the media wouldn't run the picture. He believes this was because the image contradicted the popular myth of the Gulf War as a “video-game war”—a conflict made humane through precision bombing and night-vision equipment. 

Source: theatlantic.com

"You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it".

~ Noam Chomsky ~

Tony Jaa

These images are from the book How to Develop a Powerful Grip by Edward Aston, a legendary strongman who was famous in the early twentieth century for performing feats of strength that involved his incredibly powerful grip. The first image on the left, Gripping an Open Door, is used to develop pinch grip strength and the second, Hanging from a Rope, is one of the best exercises there is for improving your grip, according to Aston.

Source: rosstraining.com

Zhang Sanfeng of the Wu Tang Taoist School (c.12 - 13 century).

Source: taiji-europa.eu

An example of a female warrior of the samurai class (onna-bugeisha).

Source: pinterest.com

"Big results require big ambitions".

~ Heraclitus of Ephesus ~

Richard Hill and his student demonstrating some basic kendo moves at the Asian Art Museum's educator workshop for the Lords of the Samurai exhibition on September 5, 2009.

Turkish official teasing starving Armenian children with bread (1915)

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust or the Great Crime among Armenians, was the systematic murder of the minority Armenian population by the Ottoman government in Turkey. The crisis started on April 24, 1915 when authorities arrested around 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. After this, able bodied men were either outright murdered or died during forced labour and women, children the sick and the elderly were forced to go on ‘death marches’ where over one million people died during deportation to the Syrian Desert.

While most experts in genocide see it as just that, (in fact the word came about to describe these events), Turkey still officially deny genocide is an accurate description of what transpired. They do however acknowledge that many people died, but argue that it was not state sanctioned, citing  state archive records of punishments of Turkish officials who were cruel to the migrating Armenian people.

Read More: rarehistoricalphotos.com

Title: Sumo Fight

Date: 19th Century

Artist: Kunisada Utagawa 1786-1864

Information: Depiction of two sumo wrestlers fighting while samurai warriors look on.

Source: artelino.com