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Temple students in Japan shaken

The dean of Temple University's Japan campus said in a middle-of-the-night interview that students and staff there are safe and unhurt in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.

The dean of Temple University's Japan campus said in a middle-of-the-night interview that students and staff there are safe and unhurt in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.

Dean Bruce Stronach, reached in Tokyo, said about a hundred students and staff were sacked out on couches and floors in university buildings, stranded when the quake stopped train service.

"When it hit, I was in my office having a meeting," he said. "We all kind of looked at each other, 'Another earthquake.' This one kept building and building, to the point where we said, 'OK, this is not just another one.'"

The Japan Campus of Temple University was established in 1982 and has an enrollment of 3,400.

Stronach has lived in Japan for 35 years on and off, and been through a lot of earthquakes. But "you could just tell that one was growing."

Buildings shook and swayed, and trees and telephone poles whipped back and forth. But because quakes are so frequent, apartments and businesses are built to bend but not break.

The university library was thrown into disarray, with books sailing off of shelves. The shock was strong enough to tip file cabinets.

"We evacuated the building during the first quake. Everything was fine, they inspected the building, we went back in - and then there was an aftershock. That's when we decided this was really something special. We closed the school down for the day. ... This is beyond anything I've ever seen."

Tokyo is about 150 kilometers from the epicenter, he said. Subsequent inspections showed the buildings were safe for stranded students and staff to sleep in.

"My staff was great and the students were great," Stronach said in a 2:05 a.m. Tokyo-time phone call. "The evacuation of the building could have been a drill, people were that calm. Staff in particular took charge, and did their jobs, even while the building was moving and shaking. Nobody really panicked."