stress

I guess the best way to describe the stress I am about to talk about would be isolation or even chaos. When I was about 5 years old my parents were arrested and we were removed from their custody.
It was a day just like any other, my Mom had picked me up from the school bus stop and needed to go grocery shopping. We went to the store and when we returned home the police had our house and driveway surrounded. I remember the Police pulling my brother and I out of my Mom's truck and placing us in the back of the police car. They handed my brother and I both a teddy bear and told us not to be scared. Now I don't know about you but at 5 years old I was a little frightened watching the police take my Mom from me. After that I remember being in the police station waiting for someone to come get us. We did not know who it was or when they would be there so we simply sat and waited. When my Grandparents arrived  my brother and I were curled up together on a bench in the waiting area. I know that at 5 years old I was terrified and did not know where we were going to live. My Mom and Dad had just been taken from us and we were now headed down the mountain with our Grandparents. i remember them talking about people who would keep us and in the end I am so happy that my Grandparents were the ones who got custody of my brother and I. As far as coping with the stress I guess I was the one who had to be strong and not show my fear for the sake of my brother. I asked my Grandmother about what happen and how we dealt with it she said, that I was one of the bravest girls there was. She said that I was the one who took care of my brother and made sure that he felt safe and not scared. She said that i never really seemed to have any type of depression or fear because what happen was not brought up ion general conversation. She said that if we asked she simply said that Mom and Dad were away and could not see us for a long time. I guess having the people who brought us up being ourGrandparents made the adjustment a little easier, it was more of an extended stay with Grandma and Grandpa.
The country that I chose to look into is Japan. i chose Japan because I have lived there and have a fascination with their culture. While I was living there the biggest stress factor that I noticed was education. The Japanese put such a huge weight on education that its enough to drive a person mad. While I was there I was in school and the students in my class were so much more advanced than I was, i honestly felt a little stupid. Back in the United States I was a B average student, I wasn't super smart but I wasn't an idiot either. When it came to math classes and science classes in my freshman classes I was last in grades. I wasn't failing but I was struggling. I learned that when children start what would be the equal to our kindergarten they begin to learn English as well as their native tongue. By 8th grade students are studying what we would study in our Jr. year of high school. Education was a huge stress in Japan. The way that I noticed my friends dealing with their stress was their Sunday. The children were allowed to ride the subway into the city and play. We went to arcades, not arcades like we Americans think of it but places with picture machines, video games, simulators, things that had not even reached our country yet. The students simply had a day of release.  Keep in mind that this was only if your grades were up and your homework for the week completed.
I know that the two different areas deal with two different age groups but from the time the Japanese enter school they are under so much pressure to do well that even the 5 year olds were at the arcades with us, and this was unsupervised. Over all I guess the way different cultures and nation deal with stress depends on the type of stress and the traditions within that country.