The interpreter appears several times throughout Rodrigues’s arrest and imprisonment, translating for the priest when his Japanese fails him. The interpreter, like Inoue, was baptized a Christian and even studied in a seminary. Unlike Inoue, however, the interpreter harbors an intense animosity towards Christianity—due in large part to an experience with a racist Portuguese priest—though not towards Rodrigues himself, as demonstrated by his often-sympathetic handling of Rodrigues’s mental anguish. The interpreter often flips between despising Christians (especially foreign priests, whom he blames for the Japanese Christians’ suffering), and gentleness. After Rodrigues apostatizes and serves the Japanese government, the interpreter acts as if the humiliating occasion never happened to spare Rodrigues any further shame. During the logical arguments against Christianity posed by Inoue, the interpreter often chimes in, providing a more vitriolic opposition against the religion.