Japanese policeman why they say so. Where did the expression "Japanese policeman" come from? ... and saved Russia the Kuril Islands

According to the ingrained tradition, all Russian heirs, starting with Paul I, after completing their studies, set off on a journey. Most often there were two trips: a large one - across Russia, a little less - across Europe. But for Nikolai, they conceived a completely unusual, grandiose tour - sea and land, which combined both travels. Moreover, one and the other part of the journey had to pass through the territory where not a single Tsarevich had been before (not only in Europe, but also in other parts of the world), excluding only the last part of the journey.

... The journey was carefully prepared, as it was given great state significance. Alexander III decided to found the Great Siberian Railway and the heir Nikolai Alexandrovich had to be personally present at the beginning of construction in Vladivostok, to bring the first wheelbarrow of soil for the embankment of the railway track. Well, in addition to cognitive goals, Nikolai also had to communicate and establish personal relations with the reigning persons of states along the travel route ...

On October 3, 1890, Nikolai set off on a long journey. In Vienna, he visited the residence of the Habsburgs, the Vienna Opera, and from there went to Trieste - a city and port belonging to Austria, but located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in Italy. Three Russian ships awaited him there - the frigates Pamyat Azov, Vladimir Monomakh and the gunboat Zaporozhets, as well as his brother, 18-year-old midshipman Georg, who continued the journey with him further. Here is Nicholas visiting the royal family in Greece.

There he was joined by his cousin, Prince George of Greece, and at the beginning of October the Russian squadron set off for the shores of Africa, Egypt, and Alexandria, where the travelers stopped.

From Suez, Russian ships followed through Aden to India, where they arrived in Bombay on December 11.

In the National Botanical Garden of Colombo in 1891, the Tsarevich planted an iron tree, which is still visited by tourists. Further "Memory of Azov" with "Vladimir Monomakh" through Singapore and Batavia (Java island) follow to Bangkok. There, Tsarevich Nikolai is a guest of the Siamese (Thai) King Rama V Chulalongkorn for a week.

Having said goodbye to the hospitable king, Nikolai Alexandrovich on March 13 followed to Nanjing. From this city, he travels along the Yangtze River on the Vladivostok steamer of the Russian Volunteer Fleet to the city of Hankou, where a large tea factory owned by a Russian trading house was located. On April 15, 1891, accompanied by 6 ships of the Russian fleet, Nikolai Alexandrovich arrived in Japan.

A warm welcome was organized for the distinguished guest, to which Prince Arisugawa-no-miya Taruhite arrived. However, Nikolai Alexandrovich's visit also caused great concern and alarm among the Japanese population. Not everyone in Japan was happy to watch the strengthening of Russia in the Far East ...

The visit to Japan began from Nagasaki, where Nikolai and his companions stayed for 9 days. The Tsarevich incognito got to know the city and, together with the officers of the squadron, repeatedly visited the suburbs of Inasamur or Inasu, which was called the Russian village. Here in the 1870s lived for some time about 600 sailors from the wrecked frigate "Askold". It was then that Russian-Japanese families arose, as well as a Russian cemetery.

The term "temporary wife" was used in Japan for the type of relationship between a foreign national and a Japanese woman, according to which, while a foreigner was in Japan, he received a wife for use and maintenance. The institute of temporary wives arose in Japan in the second half of the 19th century and existed until the war of 1904–1905. At that time, the Russian fleet, based in Vladivostok, regularly wintered in Nagasaki, and while there, some Russian officers bought Japanese women for cohabitation.

Traditionally, a contract was concluded with a foreign citizen, according to which he received a Japanese citizen at full disposal, undertaking in exchange for this to provide her with maintenance - food, premises, a hired servant, a rickshaw, and so on. Such an agreement was concluded from one month, and, if necessary, was extended, up to a year or even three years. The cost of such a contract was $ 10-15 per month. Virgins were especially appreciated, for the right to deprive a Japanese girl of innocence had to pay more. Musume were mostly teenage girls under the age of thirteen. Often, poor Japanese peasants and artisans themselves sold their daughters to foreigners, sometimes for a poor Japanese girl this was the only way to earn a dowry and subsequently marry.

The son of Alexander II, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was one of the first to pay tribute to the exotic ... He had a temporary wife in Japan and another Grand Duke, the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I and a childhood friend of the future Emperor Nicholas II - Alexander Romanov (1866-1933) .. ...

The heir with accompanying persons travels to Kyoto, where they stay at the Tokiwa Hotel. On the same day, a crowd gathered outside the hotel, and hostile shouts were heard. The Russian diplomatic mission received a threatening document signed in blood. On April 29, Nicholas and Prince George, accompanied by Prince Arisugawa-no-miya, set off in wheelchairs that drove rickshaws from Kyoto to the city of Otsu ...

Assassination attempt

It was in Otsu that the same assassination attempt took place. The heir to the throne was attacked by a Japanese policeman (policeman) Tsuda Sanzo, who himself was supposed to be in charge of order and was among the townspeople who met Nicholas and the Greek Prince George. Drawing his samurai sword, he struck Nikolai twice with it. From the death of the future Russian emperor, Georg rescued, repelling a blow with his cane. And then Japanese rickshaws ran up to the criminal and tied him up. Nikolai was quickly taken to the nearby home of the owner of a haberdashery shop, where a bed was prepared for him. However, Nikolai refused to go to bed and after dressing he sat down at the entrance to the store, quietly smoking. He told the audience: "It's okay, as long as the Japanese don't think that this incident could change my feelings for them and my appreciation for their hospitality." Subsequently, Nikolai invited the rickshaws who detained the attacker, personally awarded them with the Orders of St. Anna, gifts of $ 1,500, and pensions of $ 500 a year.

... For the Japanese side, the visit of the young Tsarevich was an important event in connection with the situation with the Kuril Islands. Although there were certain fears, since there were certain unrest among the people in this regard. Nevertheless, the Russian ships entered the port of Nagasaki and were greeted with honors befitting the person of the future Russian tsar.

For two weeks the Tsarevich, accompanied by Prince George and the Japanese heir Arisugawa Takehito, studied the sights of Japan. On April 29, the three princes and their retinue set off for sightseeing in the town of Otsu on the shores of Lake Biwa. Most of the Japanese greeted the princes cordially - the inhabitants of the city lined up along the procession, waving flags and lanterns. Due to the narrowness of Otsu's streets, the horse-drawn carriages had to be replaced by rickshaws. The delegation was guarded by policemen, who, according to etiquette, had to always be facing the august persons. This moment turned out to be the key - the guards noticed too late how one of the policemen was rushing with a saber at the Tsarevich. The fact that the future emperor escaped death is truly a miracle. This is how Nikolai himself describes what happened in a letter to his mother: “We did not have time to drive off two hundred paces, when suddenly a Japanese policeman rushes into the middle of the street and, holding a saber with both hands, hits me on the head from behind! I shouted to him in Russian: “What do you want?” And made a jump over my jen rickshaw. Turning around, I saw that he was still running towards me with a raised saber. I rushed down the street as fast as I could, crushing the wound on my head with my hand. I wanted to hide in the crowd, but I could not, because the Japanese, themselves frightened, scattered in all directions. "

The first who tried to detain the criminal was Prince George, who followed the Russian Tsarevich in a similar rickshaw cart. He hit the crazy policeman with a cane, but it was not possible to stop him. Then rickshaw Nikolai, Mukohata Dzisaburo, and then Kitagaichi Ititaro, rickshaw Georga, rushed to the defense. It was they who detained the criminal, knocking him down ...

Nikolai had two wounds - both were about 10 cm long; part of the skull bone was also damaged. The next day, Emperor Meiji arrived in Kyoto with a personal apology. A policeman named Tsuda Sanzo who perpetrated the attack was tried by the Japanese Supreme Court and sentenced to life imprisonment. He expressed his willingness to commit suicide by committing seppuku, but this was refused. A year later, he died in hard labor, either from pneumonia, or having starved himself to death.

This fatal incident did not pass without a trace for the future tsar - from that moment on, Nicolas will be tormented by headaches all his life ... and since then the curse word "Japanese policeman" has appeared in the Russian language.

Who was behind the assassination attempt?

Despite the eternally difficult relationship between Japan and Russia, all historians are inclined to believe that no one stood behind Tsuda Sanzo and the only reason for the attempt was his not entirely healthy psyche. Tsuda himself stated that the idea to kill Nicholas came to him on the same day, May 11, when two European princes visited the monument to the soldiers who died during the Satsuma uprising, and the policeman himself stood at a post near the monument. Then he thought that in 1877, taking part in the hostilities, he was a hero, and now he has become an ordinary policeman. People around said that Tsuda had long hated all foreigners. Japanese newspapers in those days wrote that "no Japanese, if he were not a madman, an idiot or a fanatic, could have conceived such an act," and "a villain who inflicted wounds on a glorified guest whom all the people sought to honor would not be punished enough. until his body is cut into a hundred pieces. " In the policeman's home village, residents even announced that they would never name newborn children by his name. There were even proposals to rename the city of Otsu in view of its "disgrace".

... The visit of the Tsarevich undoubtedly flattered the pride of the Japanese - after all, members of the reigning European houses of this caliber had never visited Japan before. Usually these were the grandchildren, second or third sons of the current monarchs. At the same time, many Japanese were clearly afraid of Russia. Nikolai abandoned the old tradition of traveling first through his native country and went straight abroad. And not to the West, but to the East! Was this not a sign that Russia's expansionist ambitions in the Far East would grow even more?

Nikolai intended to stay in Japan for a whole month. The serious Japanese press, sensitive to the signals given by the government, began to prepare for the visit of the Tsarevich in advance. Anticipating the screams of Russophobes, the newspapers talked about friendship with Russia and that Russia in the Far East is so weak that, with all its will, it is unable to pursue an expansionist policy ...

On May 11, Nicholas, Georg and Prince Arisugawa sat down in brand new, improved carriages that had just been shipped from Tokyo. The usual wheelchair was pulled by a rickshaw, assisted by one pusher. This time, out of respect for the status of passengers, two pushers helped the driver. But even the highest status of riders could not provide them with a horse-drawn carriage: the narrow streets did not contribute to the development of horse-drawn transport ... In Otsu, just like in Kyoto, organized Japanese greeted the Tsarevich and waved flags. After enjoying the views of the picturesque lake, Nikolai set off on the return journey. A long procession of rickshaws stretched for a couple of hundred meters, Nikolai was in the fifth carriage, George - in the sixth, Arisugava - in the seventh. The narrow road was guarded by many policemen.

The protection of the august persons was especially difficult in Japan - after all, etiquette forbade turning your back on them, so the police did not have the opportunity to observe the crowd. All the more high demands were made on the policemen who guarded Nicholas. They were supposed to ensure perfect order during the procession. In particular, they made sure that no one was watching the procession from the second floor (no one should be taller than the august persons!), So that when the cortege appeared, everyone would take off their hats and close their umbrellas. Residents were also forbidden to tie a towel around their heads and necks and wear short clothes that did not cover their bare legs. All this was considered indecent. The width of the crowded street was four and a half meters. The policemen stood at a distance of 18 meters from each other. And then one of them rushed to Nikolai and struck with a saber.

The blade slid across the brim of the pot and brushed against his forehead. The hat fell from Nikolai's head, one of the pushers jumped out from behind the carriage and pushed the attacker away, but he still managed to deliver a second blow with a saber, which, however, also turned out to be sliding. Nikolai wrote in his diary that he jumped out of the carriage and ran, no one tried to apprehend the criminal who rushed after Nikolai. And only after some time, Georg managed to knock down the attacker with a bamboo cane.

The heir to the throne was naturally extremely agitated, which caused inaccuracies in his description. In fact, from the testimony of numerous witnesses, it turns out that although Georg really was the first who tried to detain the criminal and hit him on the back of the head with the cane he bought that day, he did not manage to knock the attacker down. However, he still hesitated, and that was enough for Nikolai's rickshaw to rush at the policeman. The saber fell out of his hands, and then Georg's rickshaw picked up the saber and hit it on the back of the failed assassin.

There was a terrible panic in the Japanese government. Moreover, the first telegram, sent 20 minutes after the assassination attempt by Prince Arisugawa, said that the wounds inflicted on the Tsarevich were terrible. Many members of the government feared that the assassination attempt would inevitably lead to war. Meiji sent doctors to Kyoto and went there the next day. The railways of that time were single-track, the Meiji special train confused the entire schedule. Leaving at seven in the morning, Meiji arrived in Kyoto at nine in the evening. His train covered a distance of 500 kilometers faster than the regular one by three hours. The next day he visited the Tsarevich at the hotel ...

Doctors who were in the service of Emperor Meiji were not allowed to see Nicholas. In the hotel, everyone walked on tiptoe, for the sake of peace of the Tsarevich, carriages and rickshaws were not allowed to the entrance. Clients and guests disembarked on the outskirts of the hotel, carriages and carriages were delivered to the hotel parking lot on their hands. In brothels, they banned playing musical instruments and accepting clients for five days. Fortunately, Nikolai's wounds were not too serious. However, the program of the visit was crumpled, the Tsarevich, on the orders of his parents, refused to stay in the country further, despite Meiji's persistent persuasions ... Consoling Meiji, Nikolai said that wounds are trifling, and crazy people are everywhere. There were no claims for compensation ... The special commission, whose task was to receive condolences, counted about 24 thousand letters and telegrams to Nikolai, and he also received many gifts. Unable to withstand the "national shame" and grieving that Nikolai refused to visit Tokyo, 27-year-old Yuko Hatakeyama stabbed herself with a dagger in front of the Kyoto City Hall. To make her posthumous pose not look indecent, she did not forget to bandage her ankles with a towel ...

The expression "Japanese policeman" is used mainly when a person is very surprised at something. An exclamation of extreme surprise.

"Japanese policeman!"- this is how a person exclaims when he is so surprised that he does not even have the words to express his amazement.

The history of this expression is as follows.

This expression was born at the end of the 19th century, namely in April 1891, when Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II, traveled through the countries of the East. The journey was entertaining in nature, the Tsarevich and his friends had as much fun as they could. Local residents did not like their exuberant fun, which violated Eastern traditions, and, finally, in the Japanese town of Otsu, a local policeman, outraged by the tactlessness of the Europeans, rushed at the Tsarevich and hit him on the head with a saber. The saber was sheathed, so Nikolai escaped with a slight fright. This event had a significant resonance in Russia. The Japanese policeman, instead of ensuring the safety of people, rushes at a man with a saber just because he laughs too loudly! Amazing policemen in Japan! Of course, this insignificant incident would have been forgotten long ago if the expression "Japanese policeman" had not also turned out to be a successful euphemism. When a person draws out the first sound, it seems that he is now swearing obscenely. However, the speaker just remembers the old political scandal, which, most likely, he had never heard of.
(Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language. Compiled by AA Legostaev, SV Loginov. - Rostov n / D, 2003.

However, the expression "Japanese policeman" was widely used in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. and in another sense.

In the story of Nikolai Leikin (1841-1906) "The Case in Kyoto", published in the magazine "Shards" in 1905, the hero of the story, a Japanese policeman, awaits orders from his superiors, while a small child is drowning in the river. By some features, the Japanese policeman guesses the features of a Russian policeman (a saber that Japanese policemen never wore; a whistle; a mustache that hardly ever grows among the Japanese, etc.).

At first, the story was perceived by the censorship as a satire on the Japanese order, which was full of Russian publications of that period (1904-1905 - the Russian-Japanese war), already using the historical figure of the "Japanese policeman" Tsuda Sanzo, who attempted the life of the future Emperor Nicholas in Japan.

But after the enormous success of the story among the public, which the Aesopian language did not prevent from understanding who the satire was directed against, the story was banned. The censor Svyatkovsky reported: “This article is one of those that describe the ugly social forms that appear as a result of intense police surveillance. Due to the sharpness of the exaggeration of the harm from such observation, the article cannot be allowed. " The committee determined "The article should not be allowed to be published."

As a result, the expression "Japanese policeman" became very common in the name of the manifestation of martyrdom, bureaucratic arbitrariness in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. For example, Leonid Andreev in 1916, in a letter to Antonova, describes one of the censors as follows: “What a parody of a person, this N! This is non-commissioned officer Prishibeev of our day, this Japanese policeman. "

Thirteen years before the Russo-Japanese War, the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, personally visited the "land of the rising sun", where he learned from his own experience the surprise of a samurai attack.

“... We left in jen rickshaws and turned left into a narrow street with crowds on both sides. At this time, I received a strong blow on the right side of my head, above the ear. I turned and saw the disgusting face of a policeman, who for the second time swung a saber at me in both hands. I just shouted: "What, what do you want?" ... And jumped over the jen rickshaw onto the pavement. Seeing that the freak was heading towards me, and no one stopped him, I rushed to run down the street, holding the blood spurting from the wound with my hand ... ”. Judging by the entry in his personal diary, the heir to the throne was in every sense stunned by the sudden trick of the Japanese, which overshadowed the generally pleasant visit of the crown prince to the country of the samurai.

Of course, the future Nicholas II traveled not alone, but in the company of a large delegation, which included both the Greek Prince George and the official "chronicler" of the trip, Prince Ukhtomsky. The trip was limited not only to Japan, but to one degree or another affected the entire East. Having left Russia in the middle of autumn 1890, the royal tourists reached Japan by the middle of spring 1891, having already visited Egypt, India, Singapore, Thailand and the island of Java.

The crime…

On April 27, new style, the Russian squadron arrived in Nagasaki. Then the dignitaries headed to Kagoshima and Kobe, from where the ancient capital of Kyoto was a stone's throw away. Nikolai liked this previously "closed" country, its order and lifestyle. Here he often looked at the captivating geisha, once asked Japanese masters to get a dragon tattoo on his arm, and he himself deigned to settle in a classic Japanese apartment.

After seeing the wonders of Kyoto, Nikolai and his entourage left for the town of Otsu on May 11. Here, the guests had to take a walk on Lake Biwa, visit an ancient temple and visit the governor's house. During breakfast, the heir spoke of the pleasant hospitality of the Japanese and thanked the governor for the warm welcome. And Prince George, meanwhile, bought a bamboo cane.

The return trip to Kyoto followed the same roads and streets as in Otsu. Along the way, on both sides of the streets, there were two rows of policemen, 8-10 steps from each other. They made sure that the residents of Otsu paid tribute to the distinguished guests. The police officers were the same as in the morning when the Tsarevich and his retinue were just entering the city.

One of them was Tsuda Sanzo. He was not previously noticed in anything defaming his honor and dignity. He did not particularly stand out from other Japanese by his political convictions. No signs of trouble.

The street was narrow, so the Jen-rickshaws with the distinguished guests walked one after another. Nikolay moved only in the third one. Behind him are Prince George and the Japanese Prince Arigusawa. The column was closed by the Russian envoy, numerous princes and other retinue. There are fifty jen rickshaws sprawling along the street.

Everything that happened next took no more than 15-20 seconds. Sanzo jumped out of the cordon, struck the heir with his saber, holding it with both hands. Moreover, Nikolai did not even see the attacker and turned around only when Sanzo raised his saber over his head for the second time. This begs a completely legitimate question: how did the policeman, with such a blow, manage not to kill the heir to the throne? It is worth noting that during the trip Nicholas wore not imperial at all, but quite casual clothes, which included a headdress. At the first blow, the saber walked casually and touched only the fields of the gray bowler hat, which immediately flew off the head of the Tsarevich. Modern forensic experts say the second blow was stronger than the first. But this time the heir was saved by the fact that he was able to block the blow with his palm, and the saber went over his wrist. Probably on the third attempt, Sanzo planned to chop off Nikolai's head. But a rather quick reaction allowed the Tsarevich to avoid this: he jumped out of the Jen-rickshaw. "I wanted to hide in the crowd, but I could not, because the Japanese, themselves frightened, scattered in all directions ... Turning around on the move again, I noticed Georgie, running after the policeman who was chasing me ...".

A Greek prince performed a baptism of fire for his bamboo cane. He punched her in the back with Sanzo. Meanwhile, Nikolai's rickshaw grabbed the enraged policeman by the legs and threw him to the ground. The second rickshaw disarmed Sanzo with his own saber with two blows to the neck and back. The Tsarevich at this time was clearly frightened and overexcited, therefore, in his diary, he would ascribe the neutralization of the policeman to the same Greek prince. Ultimately, the incident was settled in less than a minute when the police officer was arrested by his comrades.

But the consequences of an unsuccessful assassination attempt could be very serious. First, the degree of Nikolai's injury was unclear. And secondly, if he dies, should the Japanese wait for the arrival of the Russian squadron?

... and punishment

Of course, neither one nor the other happened that year. The doctor who was with the retinue made the Grand Duke a head bandage to stop the blood. A little later, at the governor's house, the dressing was changed and an emergency train was ordered to Kyoto for a more thorough medical examination. There, the heir had to stitch and even remove a two-centimeter piece of bone. But Nicholas’s life was no longer in danger. And he himself felt quite cheerful that remaining day, which, however, can be attributed to an increase in the level of adrenaline in the blood.

Loud political consequences were also avoided. The instant "right" reaction from Japan, which amazed the heir, played a role. "The people on the streets touched me: most of them knelt down and raised their hands in regret." And in one of the letters to his mother - Empress Maria Feodorovna - he reported that he had received a thousand telegrams from the Japanese expressing grief. Then, two days after the assassination attempt, Emperor Meiji himself came to Nicholas with an expression of condolences. Their conversation lasted twenty minutes and, according to some information, was "intimate." However, Petersburg was alarmed by the event, and the stay of the heir in Japan was interrupted. Pretty soon the Russians left the "land of the rising sun" and headed to Vladivostok.

Meanwhile, Tsuda Sanzo ended up in the dock. To some extent, he was even lucky: the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan offered to kill him immediately without trial and investigation, and then report his death "as a result of illness." Most of the other high-ranking officials, including the Minister of Justice, spoke in favor of a military court with the use of capital punishment. The only problem was that the Japanese criminal code did not provide for the death penalty for attempted murder. Of course, the exception in Article 116 was members of the imperial blood. But Japanese imperial blood. The extended interpretation of the article was considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and, despite external pressure from the government, remained unchanged. Thus, the Japanese judiciary showed that it was independent of the executive, and Tsuda Sanzo was sentenced to life imprisonment, with which St. Petersburg was quite pleased. However, Sanzo had only four months to live. After being beaten by rickshaws and being imprisoned, Tsuda collapsed and died on September 27, 1891 of pneumonia.

Truth or lie?

Since then and to this day, there are rumors that it was the attempt on the life of Nicholas II in 1891 that sowed hostility towards the Japanese in the future tsar. That 1891, in a sense, led to the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. This is not the case for a number of reasons.

First, the root of all troubles was the struggle between Russia and Japan for spheres of influence in Asia. Even then, contemporaries noted that the small islands were too cramped for the 40,000,000 Japanese people who were staring at the mainland. The completed redistribution of the world in the West prompted Russia to look to the East too. There was a banal clash of interests. Secondly, it was Japan, without a declaration of war, that attacked the Russian fleet in Port Arthur on February 9, 1904.

Thirdly, Nicholas did not have any hostility towards the Japanese either before or after the assassination attempt. At the very least, there is not a single strong evidence to suggest otherwise. Two days after the attack, the Tsarevich wrote in his diary that he was not at all angry with the Japanese for the act of some fanatic. But these are not empty words of official speeches, but personal records, where Nikolai could be quite frank.

On the other hand, there are various theories about the reasons for Sanzo's attack on the Russian heir. Sometimes these theories reach the point of absurdity: Nicholas was hit on the head, allegedly for having drunkenly relieved himself at a Japanese shrine. Other sources claim that Nikolai and Georg banged the bells with sticks in a Shinto shrine. Again, there is no evidence of these points of view, similar to the mockery of later times. Such theories are easily refuted by the reaction of the Japanese to the incident, who had previously secretly approved of the attack on foreigners. And this time they sent thousands of telegrams of condolences, refused to call the newborns by the name of Sanzo, offered to rename Otsu. It even went as far as the suicide of a young girl who wanted to wash away the shame of the policeman with her own blood.

However, theories are not devoid of real foundations. At the trial, the policeman said that the crown prince did not show respect to the monument to the heroes of the suppression of the Satsuma uprising, which was organized by the semi-legendary Saigo Takamori in 1877. Sanzo himself had participated in the suppression of this uprising, and now he felt wounded, having turned from a hero to a simple policeman.

It is now impossible to verify the veracity of his words. But Tsuda, who considered himself a samurai, was fascinated by the idea of ​​expelling foreigners from Japan. Russia, in his opinion, had certain views on the "land of the rising sun", having sent the tsarevich and his retinue as spies. On the day of the assassination attempt, he feared that the crown prince had brought back the rebellious Takamori, who would deprive Sanzo of his military awards.

These circumstances contradict the statements of Nikolai's companions, who rejected the version of the attempt out of nationalist convictions. It was believed that the Japanese sacredly honor the royal power, whoever it was, not to mention the great respect for Russia. However, there is a clear contradiction here. The convictions of the tsarevich's retinue were identical to those of Nicholas himself. The Eastern journey gave rise to a sense of the immensity of Russian power in the Far East. In fact, Russia treated Japan with the same condescension as the rest of the Western world. This shortsightedness played a cruel joke on Russia. 13 years after the trip, Nikolai could not or did not want to recognize in the Japanese either their wounded patriotism, or their ability to unexpected and insidious actions. This mistake cost Russia 52 thousand human lives.

However, the unsuccessful assassination attempt at Otsu left another mark. The expression "Japanese policeman" perfectly stuck in Russian speech as an annoying exclamation to a sudden incident.

Nota bene

Do not be surprised at the degree of tales and legends about Saigo Takamori, because this man left a truly large mark on Japanese history. Born into a family of a poor samurai, he went through a harsh life school. Having gained fame and authority in the military service, he took up politics and reached such heights that he was able to influence the juvenile Emperor Meiji. Takamori became part of his first government in the late 1860s and remained an active opponent of the "discovery" of Japan. This position did not meet with the approval of other members of the government, which ultimately led to the expulsion of Saigo Takamori and open civil war with him and his samurai. The result of this confrontation was the Satsuma Uprising of 1877. As a result, Saigoµ and his allies were defeated. And such a shame meant only one thing for Takamori - the hara-kiri rite.

Once in the pantheon of the "three great heroes" of the Meiji Restoration, the personality of Saigo Takamori was overgrown with various fables, such as his miraculous rescue and return to his homeland with the Russian Tsarevich. Even today, his fame does not fade away and spreads to the whole world. In 2003, based on the biography of Saigo, the Hollywood film "The Last Samurai" was filmed, where the influential rebel Katsumoto, copied from the influential rebel Takamori, became the friend and mentor of Tom Cruise's hero.

I'm an Aponian policeman! .. - exclaims a person when he is so surprised that he does not even have words to express his amazement.

This exclamation was born at the end of the 19th century, namely in April 1891, when Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II, traveled through the countries of the East. The journey was entertaining in nature, the Tsarevich and his friends had as much fun as they could.

The local residents did not like their exuberant fun, which violated Eastern traditions, and, finally, in the Japanese town of Otsu, a local policeman, outraged by the tactlessness of the Europeans, decided to teach the Tsarevich a lesson. As soon as the carriage in which the rickshaw was carrying Nikolai caught up with a policeman named Tsuda Sanzo, the latter, drawing out a samurai sword, rushed to Nicholas II. The policeman's desire to kill the heir to the Russian throne was so great that he stumbled, not having time to stick his sword out of its scabbard, as a result of which the blow fell on a tangent, and, in addition, the hat slightly reduced the kinetic energy of the blow.

This was enough to keep the skull intact, only the skin on Nikolai's forehead cracked, blood splattered on his shirt. The Tsarevich showed miracles of courage: he rolled over the rickshaw, squeezed the wound with his palm and, with all his might, rushed down the street. At the very beginning of this throw, the terrible Japanese policeman struck again, but Nikolai dodged, although he felt a new cut on his head.

The failed killer was immediately detained, so that Nicholas II could safely return to the carriage. Nikolai was taken to the nearby large city of Kyoto, where he was placed in the governor's house. And the next day, the Japanese emperor came to the Tsarevich with a feeling of complete repentance. The Otsu assassination attempt caused a lot of noise in Japan, especially since at first Mikado was reported that the Russian was wounded so seriously that he would not last until morning. And this threatened, if not an instant declaration of war, then very big troubles.

The Japanese emperor did not arrive empty-handed: in order to hush up the incident, he awarded the guest the highest order of the Chrysanthemum and presented the heir to the Russian throne with a handmade carpet with an area of ​​about 150 square meters. meters and hastened to assure that the abuser of the son of the Russian emperor would be brought to trial and punished without fail.

Tsuda Sanzo asked the judges for permission to do hara-kiri. He was denied this. He was exiled to the Japanese "Siberia" on the island of Hokkaido, where four months later he went on an indefinite hunger strike. In September, his soul "went" to Mount Fujiyama.

This event had a significant resonance in Russia. The Japanese policeman, instead of ensuring the safety of people, rushes at a man with a saber just because he laughs too loudly! Amazing policemen in Japan!

The heir returned to Russia. He ascended the throne on November 2, 1894, and after 10 years the Russo-Japanese war was in full swing. The Japanese emperor was pushed to this by John Boole and Uncle Sam.

The next year after it began, in 1905, the satirist Nikolai Leikin published the story "A Case in Kyoto" in the Oskolki magazine, which he himself published. The hero of the story, a Japanese policeman, awaits orders from his superiors, while a small child is drowning in the river. The censorship, which saw an allusion to the "Japanese policeman" Tsudo Sanzo, willingly gave permission for publication. But she realized her mistake too quickly: the phrase "Japanese policeman" very soon became so popular that all Russian bailiffs were called that way!

The shirt with traces of the blood of Nicholas II, which he brought from Japan, has not sunk into oblivion. At first it was carefully preserved by the emperor himself, after 1917 it was not burned, but placed in an ethnographic museum, from where it was delivered to the Hermitage in 1941. When the remains of the royal family were discovered in 1991, the shirt was remembered. And in 2008, a DNA examination was carried out to establish the identity of the remains found in the Urals, to the emperor.

American scientist Michael Corble, who headed the joint Russian-American examination, confirmed that the genetic profile from the DNA of bone remains found in the Urals fully coincides with the general profile of DNA isolated from the blood stains of Nicholas II from the Tsar's shirt.

In the book about the treasures of the Kremlin Armory, there is a story about one of Faberge's Easter eggs "Memory of Azov". The red ruby ​​on the latch and the reddish shades of the egg itself are reminiscent of the attack on Nicholas II during his visit to Japan, when the young heir was struck with a sword from a fanatic samurai and miraculously survived.

Of course, this insignificant incident would have been forgotten long ago if the expression "Japanese policeman" had not also turned out to be a successful euphemism.