I'm just interested in hearing what is known about the translation process worked for Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853. At that point, the only Westerners having significant contact with Japan were the Dutch, so how exactly did President Millard Fillmore's letter to the Japanese government get translated? And who translated the Japanese responses?
Perry then went on to negotiate the Convention of Kanagawa, which I've found was written in Japanese, English, Dutch and Chinese. But who was doing the translation of these tense, high-level treaty negotiations?
There were two main interpreters on the American side. The official interpreter of the expedition was an American living in China named Samuel Wells Williams. Williams may have been the official interpreter but, he was a sinologist and only had a smattering of Japanese under his belt. He had also been a part of the Morrison expedition in 1837 to open Japan, but it ultimately failed. The main language used in negotiations for both parties was Dutch. Anton Portman was recruited by Perry, and most of the official negotiations were carried through his translations.
The Japanese had their own interpreters who had specialized in Dutch. Hori Tatsunosuke was one of these interpreters that accompanied Japanese officials to the American ships during the first anchorage in 1853.
The man who is most notably involved with the treaty of Kanagawa was Williams. Although Portman also worked on a Dutch version of the treaty, Williams hammered out most of the details with a Japanese-Chinese interpreter.
Ill leave a link to the diary of Williams if you find it interesting to look at his view of the opening. http://www.archive.org/stream/journalofperryex00swel#page/50/mode/2up