Name: Dijia Chen

Year: 2016

Major: Growth and Structure of Cities

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going? This summer, I am interning at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies in Temple University Japan Campus, located in Tokyo, Japan. Specifically, I am assisting my faculty supervisor on his research about the 3.11 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. My task is mainly to compile and assess firsthand information on topics such as the different assessments by different organizations of the nuclear crisis, technological and political debates among organizations, and the reasonings behind the protective measures taken at the time by parsing through thousands of Japanese government records, international news reports, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents on its involvement with the 3.11 crisis. Outside of this research, the internship program has also sponsored interesting activities such as a field trip to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and briefing sessions on doing business in Japan. I am enjoying my time in Japan and the wonderful experience at ICAS!

How I heard about my internship: My professor forwarded me an email from the institute about the internship program.

Why I applied for my internship: I had gained interest in Japan and the 3.11 disaster through courses I had taken at Bryn Mawr and am planning to write my senior thesis on this topic. I thought that the internship would give me an opportunity to learn more and help develop my potential thesis topic, further my capabilities as a researcher, and experience Japan.