Harley-Davdison Museum Opens Tsunami Motorcycle Exhibit

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.

“We’re truly humbled to display Mr. Yokoyama’s motorcycle,” says Bill Davidson, vice president of the Harley-Davidson Museum. “This motorcycle has an amazing story to tell, and we are honored to be able to share it.”

[Source: Harley-Davidson Museum]

By Dennis Chung