Peter Mark / The Canadian Press via AP

A rust-encrusted Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was swept away by the Japan tsunami in March 2011 was found by Peter Mark in April, washed up on an island off the coast of British Columbia. It's now headed to a Harley museum.

A Japanese man’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle that washed up on the shores of western Canada more than a year after it was swept away by the devastating tsunami will be preserved in a Harley museum in the U.S.

The 2004 FXSTB Softail Night Train motorcycle will be permanently housed in the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wis., as a memorial to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which swamped several coastal towns in northeastern Japan and left more than 15,000 people dead.

“It is truly amazing that my Harley-Davidson motorcycle was recovered in Canada after drifting for more than a year,” said the bike’s owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, in a press release issued Friday by Deeley Harley-Davidson, the Canadian distributor of Harleys. “I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation to Peter Mark, the finder of my motorcycle. Due to circumstances caused by the disaster, I have been so far unable to visit him in Canada to convey my gratitude.”

Mark found the motorcycle, still bearing its Japanese license plate, while driving his ATV on an isolated beach on Graham Island on the west coast of British Columbia on April 18. The bike, along with several other items, was inside a rusted cargo van container that apparently drifted more than 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.

“You just never know what you’re going to stumble upon when you go for a drive, and lo and behold you just come across something that’s out of this world,” Mark told CBC at the time.

The motorcycle was eventually traced to the 29-year-old Yokoyama.

The tsunami destroyed Yokoyama’s home in Miyagi prefecture and also claimed the lives of three family members, according to Japanese media reports. Yokoyama currently lives in temporary housing in Miyagi prefecture.

He said the motorcycle was being kept in a storage container behind his house when the tsunami struck.

Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada

The Harley will soon be transported to the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

Harley-Davidson offered to return the rust-encrusted bike to him and to restore it to running condition but Yokoyama respectfully declined, the company said.

“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,” Yokoyama was quoted as saying in Friday’s press release.

Harley-Davidson has offered to fly him to visit the museum and meet Marks, the Canadian who retrieved the bike. Yokoyama said he would like to do so “when things have calmed down.”

“My heart really goes out to Ikuo Yokoyama and all the survivors of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami for everything that was taken from them. I cannot even begin to comprehend the loss of family, friends, and community,” Mark was quoted by Harley-Davidson as saying. “I think it is fitting that the Harley, which was swept across the Pacific Ocean by the tsunami, will end up in the Harley-Davidson Museum as a memorial to that tragic event. It has an interesting and powerful story to convey preserved in its current state.”

The motorcycle has since been transferred to a Harley dealership in Vancouver. Plans for its transportation to the Harley museum are being developed.

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Peter Mark / Kyodo News via AP

Ikuo Yokoyama's Harley-Davidson lies on a beach in Graham Island, western Canada. The rusted bike was originally found in a large white container that was later washed away, leaving the bike half-buried in the sand.

A Japanese man who reportedly lost his home and three family members in last year’s tsunami says it’s a miracle that a prized item swept out to sea – his Harley-Davidson motorcycle – has turned up more than 4,000 miles away on the shores of western Canada.

Ikuo Yokoyama’s motorcycle was inside a large white cube container, like the back part of a moving truck, that washed up on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii islands, CBC News reported.

Peter Mark was riding his ATV, exploring a beach on one of the islands, when he came upon the find on April 18.

"You just never know what you're going to stumble upon when you go for a drive, and lo and behold you just come across something that's out of this world," he said in an interview with CBC, which published stories this week on the find.

Mark told CBC he could see a motorcycle tire sticking out of the container. On closer inspection, he saw that it was a rusted Harley-Davidson with Japanese license plates. Six golf clubs were pinned beneath the bike.

The plates showed the motorcycle was registered in Miyagai prefecture, the area hit worst by the destructive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.

“I gotta say, the first thing that popped into my mind when I was looking at the scene [was] I really wonder what happened to this person. I really hope this person is OK," Mark told CBC. "It's quite a shock to actually see it and to actually walk into it. … [It's] quite an eerie feeling, knowing what happened to Japan and to those people. It kind of hits home quite a bit."

The Japanese consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, took down the license number.

A Harley Davidson representative in Japan tracked the bike’s identifying information to Yokoyama, a 29-year-old resident of Yamamoto in Miyagi prefecture, CBC reported, citing Japanese media reports.

Yokoyama told Japanese broadcaster NHK that the discovery of the motorcycle was miraculous.

“I’m very thankful that it came back,” he told NHK, The Province newspaper in British Columbia reported. “I would like to thank the man who found my bike in person, but because it’s hard to do that, I’d like to thank him here right now.”

Yokoyama told Japanese media he had been using the white container as his garage. It was in his backyard when the earthquake and tsunami struck, destroying his house and killing three family members, according to The Province.

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Mark told CBC he left the motorcycle where he found it, partly because the beach where it washed up is remote and hard to get to.

Objects and debris from last year’s tsunami, carried by ocean currents, have been washing up with increasing frequency on the west coast of Canada and the United States.

Recent discoveries include a soccer ball and a volleyball that were swept away in Iwate prefecture and washed ashore on Alaska’s Middleton Island. The items were returned to their Japanese owners.

The Maritime Museum of BC last week launched the Tsunami Debris Project, an online effort to collect photos of flotsam that has washed ashore, with the hope that some items can be reunited with their owners.

The magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami killed more than 15,000 people and crippled several nuclear plants. Tons of debris were swept into the Pacific Ocean.

“The idea is to not only document, but to showcase them in an exhibit-type of way, and to tell the social and human side of the story with the idea that there might be a few items that come over that have some personal or sentimental value for these people that have lost everything,” project coordinator Linda Funk told ABCNews.com. 

The Maritime Museum says the bulk of the debris isn’t expected to hit the shores of the U.S. and Canada until 2013-14.

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