Civic Paralysis Seizes Tsunami-Stricken Town Still in Shambles.

MINAMISANRIKU, Japan -- Six months after Japan's deadly earthquake and tsunami, the naked steel frame of the former Disaster Management Center stands like a tombstone over the flattened field of weed-covered debris that was once this town's center. People come from near and far to pray before the three-story structure, turning it into a shrine of sorts for the town officials who died here. Amid the white flowers, smoldering incense and bottles of beer and whiskey left to comfort the dead, there are also signs of rancor. A long handwritten letter, laminated to shed the rain, criticizes the failure to tear down the structure as callous disregard for the families of those who perished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]