Tsunami-Surviving Harley-Davidson From Japan Headed for Museum

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

The 2004 Harley-Davidson FXSTB Softail Night Train that floated 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from tsunami-wracked Japan will be enshrined at the Harley-Davidson Museum at the request of its owner.

Ikuo Yokoyama lost relatives and his home during the disaster, as well as a box truck containing the Night Train. The storage container was recovered on an island in British Columbia, Canada, by beachcomber Peter Mark, more a year after the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, with the motorcycle damaged but mostly intact.

Harley-Davidson had originally offered to restore the lost motorcycle and return it to Yokoyama but the 29-year-old asked instead for the Softail to be preserved in the Harley-Davidson Museum as a memorial to the 15,000 lives lost in the disaster.

“Since the motorcycle was recovered, I have discussed with many people about what to do with it. I would be delighted if it could be preserved in its current condition and exhibited to the many visitors to the Harley Davidson Museum as a memorial to a tragedy that claimed thousands of lives,” says Yokoyama who still lives in temporary housing.

“I am very grateful to Harley-Davidson for offering me an opportunity to visit the museum, and I would like to do that when things have calmed down,” says Yokoyama. “At the same time, I would like to meet Peter, who recovered my motorcycle, to express my gratitude. Finally, I would like to thank all people around the world once again for their wholehearted support of the areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami. I would like to ask them to help convey messages from the Japanese people about the tragedy of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which was a disaster of historic proportions.”

[Source: Harley-Davidson]

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Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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