The Harley-Davidson Museum will get the motorcycle that made international headlines when it washed up on a beach in British Columbia after the Japanese tsunami.

Friday, museum officials said the bike's owner asked to have the 2004 FXSTB Softail Night Train preserved in Milwaukee in honor of those who lost their lives in the March 2011 storm that devastated Japan.

"I would be delighted if it could be preserved in its current condition" in the museum, Ikuo Yokoyama said in a statement released by Harley-Davidson.

The bike, inside a large white container, floated more than 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

A beachcomber in British Columbia's Haida Gwaii Islands found it while exploring an isolated beach on his all-terrain vehicle.

The container had Japanese writing on it, and the bike's license plate indicated it was from Japan.

The bike was rusty, especially the wheels and handlebars, but the Harley logo on the fuel tank was unmistakable.

Still struggling to rebuild his life, 29-year-old Yokoyama lost three family members and his home in the storm and is living in temporary housing in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Harley-Davidson had offered to return his bike, but he wasn't ready for it.

Plans are being made to get the bike from British Columbia to Milwaukee.

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.

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.