bernard j. bettelheim was a hungarian jew ; a rabbinical student ; a physician ; a scientist whose specialty was the eradication of the cholera scourge ; a linguist conversant in 20-plus languages ; a convert to the anglican faith ; a friend of famed african explorer david livingston ; a world traveler ; a christian missionary to okinawa ; a translator of the bible 's king james version into japanese , its okinawan dialect and chinese ; commodore matthew perry 's interpreter in the 1853 opening of japan ; an emigrant to the united states in the late 1850s ; a civil war union army surgeon ; and a brookfield businessman .