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Is there any reasonably neutral account of this fight?
I can't recall any details but I can confirm it was a major spat, and the horrified Japanese tried to intervene a little.
But, actually, warring factions within European and US go associations seem to be the norm. In Japan and Korea, too, come to that. China is more controlled institutionally, but there are plenty of spats between top players.
There was another bit of friction in Central Europe in the early 70s and that was the presence of a Czech player who was mysteriously able to travel to all the European events at a time when travel overseas by almost all people in the Communist bloc was close to impossible. He was assumed to be a spy (and one of the chapters in Art Of War is on espionage). Maybe he was also an agitator. After all, Czecho and Vienna were right next door...
But in go administration it seems you don't actually need a Third Man to start a fight. Two will do nicely.