Ōtsu incident
The Ōtsu incident ( Japanese 大 津 事件, Ōtsu Jiken ) was a failed assassination attempt on May 11, 1891 (April 29, 1891 in the Julian calendar , which was still valid in Russia at that time, which is why the official report of the Tsar's court mentions this date) in Ōtsu Tsarevich Nikolaus, later Emperor Nicholas II , during his trip to East Asia.
The incident
Tsarevich Nikolaus, Prince George of Greece , who was traveling with him, and their entourage had arrived on April 27, 1891 on board the Pamjat Asowa in Nagasaki , where a state reception was prepared for them by Japanese dignitaries, including Prince Arisugawa Takehito . After stays in Kagoshima and Kobe , they reached Kyoto on May 9th .
On May 11th, a trip to the nearby town of Ōtsu was on the agenda, in the vicinity of which Nicholas, Prince Georg and their entourage were to visit Lake Biwa and the surrounding mountains. Shortly before Ōtsu, they were greeted by local dignitaries; a visit to Mii-dera , one of the largest temples in Japan, followed. They then took a ship to Karasaki , where they were greeted with fireworks. After seeing some armor, they returned to Ōtsu. After lunch in the prefectural office , the return journey to Kyoto began at 1:30 p.m.
The first four rickshaws in the tour group were manned by police and administrative officials from Shiga and Kyoto Prefecture . Nikolaus was in the fifth, Georg in the sixth and Prince Takehito in the seventh. Due to rumors that something bad would happen to Nikolaus that day, the path was lined with police officers.
When the rickshaws had made their way through the crowds on the narrow street 700-800 meters, the policeman Tsuda Sanzo suddenly jumped out and struck the tsarevich with a saber stroke on the right temple, which was softened by the brim of his hat. Prince Georg struck the attacker with his whip and Nikolaus' rickshawl brought him down. One of George's rickshaws seized the fallen saber and injured Tsuda's neck and back.
Effects
When Emperor Meiji learned of the incident through a telegram, he sent the doctor General Hashimoto Tsunatsune and his personal physician to Ōtsu and conferred with Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi and other cabinet members. The day after next he paid a sick visit to the Tsarevich. On the instructions of his parents, Nicholas broke off his trip to Japan and accompanied the Tenno to Kobe, where he had dinner with the Tenno on May 19, the day of his departure, on board the Pamjat Asowa . The two coolies were called to the ship, where Nicholas personally presented them with 2,500 yen and the Russian Order of Saint Anne . In addition, they both received an annual annuity of 1,000 yen. Emperor Meiji worried about this wealth, the coolies could use the unfamiliar wealth to their detriment, and instructed Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō to admonish the two men not to use the recognition unworthily. This not only did that, but instructed the governors of their prefectures of origin Kyoto and Ishikawa to watch out for the men. Meanwhile, the attack in Japan had caused great excitement. To mitigate the national shame of the attack on a state guest, many Japanese sent gifts and tens of thousands of letters to the tsarevich expressing shame and sadness. A 27-year-old servant named Yuko killed herself outside the Kyoto Prefectural Office on May 20 to repent with her death. A memorial was donated in her memory. The place Kaneyama in Yamagata Prefecture even banned the name and the surname Sanzo Tsuda.
In the run-up to the trial, there was strong pressure from the government to obtain a death penalty on political grounds in order to placate Russia. Article 116 seemed appropriate for this. He determined that anyone who attempted to murder the Tennō, his wife or the crown prince should be punished with death. On May 12, Prime Minister Matsukata and Minister of Agriculture and Trade Mutsu Munemitsu summoned the highest-ranking judge at the Supreme Court , Kojima Iken , to share their view of the danger of Russian disgruntlement. However, Kojima refused to apply Article 116 on the grounds that it clearly referred to the Japanese emperor, not to foreign rulers. The next day, Kojima consulted with the other Supreme Court justices, who all agreed with his interpretation. Justice Minister Yamada Akiyoshi threatened to declare martial law, which would have priority over civil law. On the same day, the responsible judge in Ōtsu announced that Tsuda would be charged under Articles 292 and 112 of the Criminal Code with a simple attempted murder, punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. Pressure continued on the judges to allow Article 116, but in the end five of the seven judges voted against it. A final attempt by Interior Minister Saigō Tsugumichi to force a different decision also failed. The next day the trial against Tsuda began, which resulted in a life sentence. The Japanese legal system emerged stronger from the affair, and Kojima himself suffered no disadvantages because of his attitude. Some see Tsuda's motives in the cession of Sakhalin to Russia in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) and in the assumption that the Russian visit served to espionage and prepare an attack on Japan. In any case, these were reasons Tsuda himself cited during the trial. He is also said to have believed the rumor that the samurai leader Saigō Takamori was not dead but returned with the Russians, and so Tsuda feared that a resurgence of the Satsuma rebellion could endanger his status.
Tsuda himself stated during the trial that the attack was due to his dissatisfaction with his status as a simple police officer. He said he looked at the memorial dedicated to the victims of the Satsuma rebellion on Mount Miyukiyama, to which the strangers showed no respect. They would have had the view explained to them there, which he rated as espionage. At this point he made the decision to kill the heir to the throne. Tsuda was imprisoned in a prison on Hokkaidō , where he died of pneumonia on September 30, 1891 .
Contrary to the fears of many members of the government, the Ōtsu incident did not lead to war with Russia. In part, it has been speculated that as a result Nicholas developed anti-Japanese feelings that contributed to the Russo-Japanese War 13 years later . However, this assumption is controversial.
Judge Kojima's diary, which describes what happened after the assassination attempt, was banned and was not published until 1931.
literature
- Donald Keene : Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, ISBN 0-231-12340-X
- Nomura Yoshifumi: Ōtsu jiken . Fukuoka 1992, ISBN 4-7512-0458-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Telegrams from the Telegraph Correspondence Bureau. In: Wiener Zeitung , May 13, 1891, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, p. 448.
- ↑ In 1871 the one yen gold coin weighed 1.5 grams of pure gold or 24.26 grams of pure silver.
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, p. 449, note 23.
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, p. 454.
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, p. 457.
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . New York 2003, pp. 454-455.
- ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . Columbia University Press, New York 2003, pp. 455-457.