DH

I'm not Mike but I think it's an interesting topic. He is spot on with 'Westerners" as a term. though I'd really love to find out just how prevelant this knowledge truly is in Asia. Knowing about them, and having any appreciable skills is a totally different thing.
Time and travel is showing just how poor the Asians are becoming at their own stuff as well. Less and less people care about this stuff anymore.

Westerners to me? Oh I'd say hundreds of Aikidoka I have met personally over the years who didn't have a clue, not a single clue. And some who had pieces in their bodies but couldn't describe what it was, nor how it got there. The typcial refrain being "I just trained." So forget being capable of passing on even the little they had.
Then, what may amount to thousands of various artists have spoken to over the net. All of which -either on the net or in person-would include every imaginable rank to the highest levels of the Japanese arts.
For me I can add-in recent forays into the Chinese arts. Which are far trickier, as many have the lingo down cold, and are useless in displaying anything power worth the having. And this would include lineage holders who were an embarrassment.
There are teachers in the Japanese arts and in the Chinese arts-especially the Chinese arts who have real power. You can debate just who they are and how many.
To say "Westerners missed it" does not have to mean every-single-person. But on the whole it is not only accurate, but those exact words have come out of the mouths of some serious teachers after feeling these skills.

I've no wish to debate it. Anyone who's "got it" is not going to sit here and say they are typical. In fact anyone who has got it will stand out instantaneously. They will be of note if anyone laid hands on them. Anyone who's got it usually is found reiterating "What happened to everyone else?"
Debating degrees and levels and skills sets is fine. Not the least of which is debating the idea of having these skills and training to use them in superior fighting methods such as MMA over most anything else-including Aikido.