From Miyagi Prefecture in Japan to Graham Island in British Columbia, Canada, to Milwaukee, Wis., the motorcycle tossed across the Pacific Ocean by the 2011 Japanese tsunami has landed at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

The 2004 Harley-Davidson Softail Night Train owned by earthquake and tsunami survivor Ikuo Yokoyama is now on display at the museum as a memorial to those affected by the March 2011 tsunami. The motorcycle will be preserved in the condition it was in when Canadian beachcomber Peter Mark found it inside a cargo box that washed up on Graham Island in May.

Yokoyama, who lost loved ones in the disaster and still lives in temporary housing, declined an offer by Harley-Davidson to restore and return the motorcycle, asking instead that it be enshrined as a memory of the disaster. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »