Retrieving unicode character from db in spring

Question

I have a value stored in a db say "test\u03C9test"

my code is along the lines of

var value = <my query> // working fine
try {
     test("<root>" + value + "</root>");
     //test("<root>test\u03C9test</root>");
} catch (Exception e){
     System.out.println(e);
}

my 2 method calls to test appear to call with the exact same parameter however the first does not convert the \u03C9 into its unicode character it seems like maybe spring is escaping the backslash?

but trying .replaceAll("\\\\", "\\"); is not having the desired effect. Am I missing something?