teatimeatwinterpalace: 11 May 1891 | The Ōtsu incident Nicholas would undertake a voyage, it was dec
teatimeatwinterpalace: 11 May 1891 | The Ōtsu incident Nicholas would undertake a voyage, it was decided, with his brother George and a few friends, fellow aristocrats and officials, aboard a warship called the Memory of Azov. He could go fiirst through the Mediterranean, stopping in Athens to pick up a further passenger - Prince George of Greece. The ship would then stop in Egypt while they saw the usual monuments. They would proceed to India, Ceylon, Siam, the British Straits Settlements, Japan and China. The Tsarevich would then leave the ship at the Russian port of Vladivosok and travel back overland through Siberia. In Japan he was well received, the first member of Russia’s ruling House to visit the country. In a small town called Otsu, near the city of Osaka, he was to view a very sacred Shinto shrine, a rare honour that had never before been given to a European. He and his friends travelled by rickshaw, and they dined with the local Governor. Afterwards, as the Tsarevich was climbing into the vehicl, there was a sudden movement - the swish of a sword blade through the air. He had been attacked. A Japenese man, later identified as an off-duty policeman and assumed to suffer from mental illness, had been so offdended by the notion of a foreigner trespassing on sacred ground that he sought to prevent it. He struck Nicholas once with a sabre, drawing blood from a wound just above the right ear. He tried to swing the blade again, and this second stroke might have been fatal, but was knocked aside by one of the party, Prince George of Greece, who then pinned him down. This incident - an international outrage committed against such a distinguished guest - put an abrupt end to the tour. The Japanese Government immediately sent a cable to Alexander, offering fulsome apologies. The Tsar accepted, but decided to bring his son home without further delay. The affair in Japan, though Alexander officially considered the matter closed, was to be a major grievance for the Romanovs. Nicholas - and his father - already thought of the Japanese as ‘monkeys’, and this word was used by Nicholas when referring to them in his diary. Notwithstanding the hospitality he had otherwise received in that country, he regarded them thereafter as savages. The white shirt he was wearing at that moment was kept as a relic. It has survived - bloodstains and all - and is in the collections of the State Hermitage Museum ( it would be used for DNA-testing when his remains were identified). Every year on the anniversary of the attack, 29 April, there was a thanksgiving service attended by the family for his deliverance, though he was to suffer headaches throughout his life as a result of it.Nicholas II the Last Tsar by Michael PatersonMaria to Nicholas 6th May, 1891My more than dearest Nicky, - God be praised! No words can tell what dread and sorrowing tears we received that terrifying news with! I could not believe my eyes and thought I must be going mad! How lucky your telegram telling us you were safe came first, in fact in the morning just when I was getting up - Bariatinsky’s telegram with details only arrived at three in the afternoon. You can well imagine what agonies we suffered waiting for that telegram all through the day! It was more than terrible. We kept getting other most upsetting telegrams from Japan, which said you had received two sabre cuts on the head, that you were seriously wounded, but that there was hope the wound was not dangerous! It was indeed more than one could stand. Our cup of sorrow was full, and I assure you Papa and I were at the end of our strengh. But by the Almighty’s mercy our tears of terror and anguish became tears of joy and deep gratitude for His forbearance in protecting your life from imminent danger. This is the second time His manifest help has saved you, my dearest Nicky; may He henceforward protect you always and everywhere and soon give us the undescribable joy of seeing you home safe and sound, so that I can take you to my impatient heart full of thankfulness.I kiss you in my thoughts will all my heart and sould, and congratulate you again and again, my angel Nicky, on your merciful escape. Alas that I cannot fly to you and have the consolation, if but for an instant, of convincing myself with my own eyes that everything is well and that there is no more need to be anxious about your poor head, on which I seem to see the wounds. The horror of it all still makes me tremble when I think of it. […] The Empress Haruko sent me the most touching telegrams every day with news about you. I had one more today, expressing her regret at not seeing you at Tokio. -- source link
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