Java: error cannot find symbol - why is this an error and not an exception?

I'm relatively new to Java, and trying to understand the rationale behind making this an error, rather than an exception.

I've read in several places that an error:

>"indicates serious problems that a reasonable application should not try to catch"

In my case, I've made a method called getAttribute, containing a switch to return various field values depending on the attribute requested. In this instance it seemed more elegant than to have getter methods for each of these attributes. Here's a sample of the code:

public class JPXmlWord implements Serializable {
	 
	    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	    
	    @XmlAttribute(name = "Kanji")
	    private String kanji;
	    @XmlAttribute(name = "Kana")
	    private String kana;
	    @XmlAttribute(name = "English")
	    private String english;
	    @XmlAttribute(name = "Romaji")
	    private String romaji;
	    @XmlAttribute(name = "Katakana")
	    private String katakana;
	    public String getAttribute( String attribute ) throws Exception {
	    	switch ( attribute ) {
		    	case ("kanji"):
		    		return this.kanji;
		    	case ("kana"):
		    		return this.kana;
		    	case ("english"):
		    		return this.english;
		    	case ("romaji"):
		    		return this.romaji;
		    	case ("katakana"):
		    		return this.katakana;
		    	default:
		    		throw new Exception();
	    	} 
	    }

By request, so you can reproduce the missing symbol error (same error you'd get requesting any missing symbol from any class):

JPXmlWord word = new JPXmlWord();
word.getAttribute("nonExistentAttribute");

Wanting to throw an exception specific to when an inexistent field is requested, I tried requesting an inexistent field in jshell to see what specific exception gets thrown, but got an error rather than exception.

Why is the request for an inexistent field considered a problem "that a reasonable application should not try to catch"?

I'm worried there is something I don't grasp about Java philosophy, because I am surprised by this. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

If I understood you correctly your code is something like this

public class Main {
    private String field1;
    private String field2;

    public String getAttribute(String name) {
        switch (name) {
            case "field1":
                return this.field1;
            case "field2":
                return this.field2;
            case "notDeclaredField":
                return this.notDeclaredField; // <- this is simply an error that the javac is telling you about
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid name");
        }
    }
}

and the problem you are facing is that your code can't be compiled because you reference a field that is not declared. This is because Java is a language that enforces that field, type, methods, etc. need to be defined (at compile time) before they are used.
You seam to come from lanugages like python where you define an instance field by using it.

class Class:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def setAtt(self, value):
        self.field = value # this is okay in python

On the otherhand the below code would perfectly compile and do what you seam to expect

public class Main {
    private String field1;
    private String field2;

    public String getAttribute(String name) {
        switch (name) {
            case "field1":
                return this.field1;
            case "field2":
                return this.field2;
            default:
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid name");
        }
    }
}

notice that there is no access to a field that is not declared.
But if you have a fixed set of attributes you want to be able to access you should simply write a getter for each one. This way you get the safty that the field/attribute is present at compile time rather than at runtime.

But if you want to be able to add attributes to your class instance at runtime, you should use a Map<,> to keep track of theri values

import java.util.HashMap;

public class Main {
    private HashMap<String, String> atts = new HashMap<>();

    public String getAttribute(String name) {
        if (atts.containsKey(name)) {
            return atts.get(name);
        } else {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("There is not attribute with the name: " + name);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {}
}