Tsunami Motorcycle: Japan Tsunami-Swept Harley Found In Canada

In this photo taken by Canadian Peter Mark in the end of April, 2012, and released on Wednesday, May 2, a Harley-Davidson motorbike lies on a beach in Graham Island, western Canada. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, Peter Mark)

TOKYO — It must have been a wild ride. Japanese media say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in last year's tsunami has washed up on a Canadian island about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) away.

The rusted bike was found in a large white container where its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, had kept it. He was located through the license plate number, Fuji TV reported Wednesday.

"This is unmistakably mine. It's miraculous," Yokoyama told Nippon TV when shown photos of the motorcycle.

Yokoyama lost three members of his family in the March 11, 2011, tsunami, and is now living in temporary housing in Miyagi prefecture (state).

The motorcycle is among the first items lost in the tsunami to reach the west coast of North America. In March, an Alaska man found a football and later a volleyball from Japan; their owners were located last week using names that had been inscribed on the balls.

Canadian Peter Mark, who found the bike and its container, told Fuji that he "couldn't believe that something like that would make it across the Pacific." The report said he found it April 18 on Graham Island, off the coast of British Columbia.

The motorcyle was caked with "a lot of corrosion, a lot of rust," said Mark.

When he saw the Japanese license plate, Mark wondered if it might have drifted from Japan after the tsunami, and contacted a local TV station.

The Fuji report said the motorcycle would be shipped back to Japan, and that the shop that sold it to Yokoyama would help with paperwork and storage.

Debris from the tsunami initially gathered in the ocean off Japan's northeastern coast and has since spread out across the Pacific. In February, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said currents would carry much of the debris to the coasts of Alaska, Canada, Washington and Oregon between March 2013 and 2014, though they correctly predicted that some of it could arrive this year.

Last month, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired on and sank a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska that had drifted from Japan after the disaster. Authorities had deemed the ship a hazard to shipping and to the coastline.

Comments

[durph20]

08:54 AM on 05/14/2012

Hi,
I am collecting donations for a high school english project to help the survivors of the tsunami. Please visit this Website; https://www.justgive.org/registries/wishlist/donate/japantsunamifundraiser
and you can donate anything above $10.00.
Thanks!

[Jorgelzorro]

08:51 PM on 05/04/2012

Imagine all the trash,no wonder the oceans are dying

[Joseph Fattal]

08:15 PM on 05/04/2012

I am waiting for my toyota. I wonder how long it will take to come ashore in Florida.

[lex19999]

03:39 AM on 05/24/2012

218.8856 years.

[Tedison]

06:49 AM on 05/04/2012

And the best part is that it no longer needs a headlight, the entire bike now glows.

[laserbob]

02:44 PM on 05/03/2012

The latest I have heard from our local media here on Vancouver Island (Just a bit south of the island where the bike washed up), is that owner has turned down having the bike returned, and that it is being shipped to a Harley shop here on our island. I'm hoping that the original story is correct and that he will get his bike back, even if it's just to go into storage until he get's into a situation where he might be able to ride again.

[FreeSwingingSoul]

12:36 PM on 05/03/2012

"...currents would carry much of the debris to the coasts of Alaska, Canada, Washington and Oregon between March 2013 and 2014, though they correctly predicted that some of it could arrive this year."

What? No mention of potential radioactivity from the tsunami debris? I guess there's no mention of potential radioactivity because there's nothing that can be done about it, so our government and the media ignore it, hoping maybe people will forget about all the radioactive material dumped into the sea during that disaster and it's aftermath.

[Whistlejackett]

06:55 AM on 05/04/2012

The tsunami washed the debris away about 64 hours before the nuclear plants exploded, so most likely the bride field was not contaminated, hopefully.

[rcozad]

11:04 AM on 05/03/2012

Talk about a collectors dream...a Harley from Japan - RARE !! Can't wait to see that one on "Pawn Stars "

[realitytrumpsbull]

08:56 AM on 05/05/2012

Japan's big on TV, maybe the Teutel bros. can use a little bit of their $$$ and recondition the bike and present it back to the owner. The bike that tried to find its' way home to Milwaukee...

[realitytrumpsbull]

08:59 AM on 05/05/2012

Or, see if H-D will accept the machine back for a frame-up restoration. Maybe invite the owner to come ride it off the lot and to the airport for the voyage home, or present it to him at the Harley dealership in Japan? They'll have to come out with a commemorative Navy model, after this. They used to make one with a sidecar, why not a pontoon kit? Jet-ski, eat your heart out...

[rcozad]

08:41 AM on 05/06/2012

Or , as our local BMW dealer said " Proof positive that S**T Floats"!

[GOP Lie Detector]

10:27 AM on 05/03/2012

I was more amazed that someone in Japan would own one of those noisy junkers to start with. Especially with all the super-cool Kaw's, Hondas and Suzuki's (crotchrockets).

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:00 AM on 05/05/2012

Soichiro Honda was building motorized bicycles 'way back in the day'. If you look at the early Harley-Davidsons, same basic idea at work. Hogs are neat, but they're way too expensive for me.

[nfischet]

08:55 AM on 05/03/2012

drain the fuel,pour some oil in the cylinders,let it soak for a couple of days,it'll bust right off!!

[Dave24]

04:24 PM on 05/02/2012

"It's miraculous." Not really.

[Yetsomeotherguy]

03:40 PM on 05/02/2012

I wonder how radioactive that motorcycle was.

[mattsspats]

03:20 PM on 05/02/2012

Nothing new--Japan has been shipping us Harleys for decades!

[tnana23boys]

03:51 PM on 05/02/2012

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"?

[sickamor]

05:44 PM on 05/02/2012

Lincoln

[mattsspats]

06:08 PM on 05/02/2012

Well, ok, just the parts. But they ARE ASSEMBLED in the USA. Hooray!

[dogman44]

05:34 PM on 05/02/2012

The closest thing to a Harley that Japan ever produced was called the Marusho. They
were copies of the famous old 45ci flat-head that our military used. I've heard that they
were so closely copied that parts were interchangeable.

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:01 AM on 05/05/2012

So was the Mitsubishi Zero.(Hughes H-1)

[StopMakingSense2]

03:19 PM on 05/02/2012

Picture's deceiving since the bike alone wouldn't have washed up anywhere. The container it was in gave it the necessary buoyancy! Harley mythology alone won't get it done!

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:01 AM on 05/05/2012

Air in the tires?

[stormbringer56]

02:30 PM on 05/02/2012

i can see it now Ghost Rider 3

[realitytrumpsbull]

09:02 AM on 05/05/2012

Ghost Rider meets Aquaman.

[Markos8]

01:36 PM on 05/02/2012

I thought it says it was found in a large white container; that doesn't really look like a white container in the picture.