The calm and orderly behavior of the japanese has nothing to do with honor or religious beliefs. Japan has a very homogeneous population not just in term of race but their culture of following authority and working for "the man". As such the entire population behaves that way and expects others to do so as well. It's a very polite society on the surface but emotionally suppressed. However if you ever goto some of their "release" locations such as the nightclubs at roppongi hills and kabukichi in tokyo you will see a very different side of the japanese. I know i was very surprised on my first visit to one of those clubs, almost got into a fight. And it's not gangsters that hangs there but regular white collar office workers that were so polite and mellow during the day. It's an interesting society that has so much violence and deviant sexual practices (sometimes both) that's tightly winded inside a bottle that most visitors will never see when they visit the orderly, clean and polite cities of japan. In the US, on the other hand, what you see is what you get. If this were to happen in educated upper-middleclass neighborhoods in the US i have little doubt the people will handle the crisis simiarly to the japanese. But if it were to happen in the US ghettos (like part of new orlean) then prepare for total chaos war zone. US has extreme differences in neighborhoods, people and their morale behavior. Japan doesnt it. So it isnt fair to generalize all parts of US as unable to handle crisis with calm and dignity.
"A guide to understanding the Japanese which goes beyond the etiquette to uncover the real nature of the people of the rising sun." http://www.ovalbooks.com/xeno/Japanese.html