Last week, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100.

Although he has been both praised and criticized globally, I can think of no other U.S. diplomat whose reputation in Japan and China was as polar opposite as that of Kissinger.

What is particularly unforgettable for Japan is that, at the time of the U.S.-China normalization in the early 1970s, Kissinger engaged in clandestine diplomacy and did not inform Tokyo in advance of America's intentions.