The Incredible Story Behind The Harley-Davidson Tsunami Motorcycle

Harley-Davidson is an American brand with a global presence. Friends William Harley and Arthur Davidson built their first motorcycle in 1903 in a backyard shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Harlery-Davidson's headquarters remains on that site to this day, although it has grown to nearly half a million square feet. Harley sold almost 163,000 bikes worldwide last year, including close to 27,000 in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Harley's sales have dipped over the last couple of years as its stateside rival Indian Motorcycle enjoys a resurgence under new ownership, and boutique manufacturers like Goshen, Indiana's Janus Motorcycles have made a dent in larger companies' sales.

Harley-Davidson owners log countless miles on their bikes each year, but one 2004 Softail Night Train took a remarkable transcontinental journey after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan's northern coast. The massive tidal wave killed nearly 16,000 people, and the Japanese government estimates that about 20 million tons of debris was swept into the ocean. That included a shipping container that floated more than 4,000 miles across the Pacific to British Columbia's Graham Island, where Peter Mark happened across it on the beach. When Mark looked inside, he saw the battered, rusty motorcycle. He returned three weeks later, and the container was gone, but the Harley remained buried in the sand.

Harley-Davidson Museum curator Kristen Jones told Smithsonian.com that the container's journey from the Miyagi Prefecture to British Columbia took more than a year, and company staff tracked down the bike's owner, 29-year old Ikuo Yokoyama, via its Vehicle Identification Number. At first, Harley offered to restore the Softail, but experts realized that nearly all of it was beyond salvation. 

Representatives then offered to replace it with a new one, but Yokoyama declined, telling them he "didn't want to be a tall blade of grass among a shorter lawn," according to the Smithsonian. Jones relayed that he declined in an effort to remain mindful of how much he and others had suffered from the tsunami. "He lost pretty much everything, too," she said. "Members of his family, all of his possessions. But he felt humbled and didn't want to be treated specially." He requested that the bike be displayed as a tribute to the lives lost in the tragedy, and an exhibit for it was built at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

"We're truly humbled to display Mr. Yokoyama's motorcycle," museum Vice-President Bill Davidson told Motorcycle Cruiser. "This motorcycle has an amazing story to tell, and we are honored to be able to share it.

Yokoyama had put the Softail away for storage before the earthquake and resulting tsunami hit, and in the aftermath was mourning the loss of his home and several members of his family, so the bike was no longer a concern. The foam insulation in the walls of the container kept it afloat during its long trans-Pacific journey, but salt water intruded and all but destroyed the motorcycle.

After it landed on the beach, the waves continued to pound away at it, and the tide dragged it across rocks and sand. While the bike remains structurally intact and fully recognizable as a Harley, nearly every surface of the Softail is pitted and rusty from exposure to saltwater. The bike doesn't sit alone in the Harley-Davidson Museum, though. Next to it are one thousand origami cranes known as Senbaruzu which were folded by the Minami Osaka Harley Owner's Group in Sakai, Japan. The group assembled the cranes in 2013 as a show of support for the victims of the tsunami.