GROVE CITY — With a mixture of emotions, Peggy Loughner Fisher of Grove City accepted an apology made by the Mitsubishi Mineral Co. last week at a World War II museum in Wellsburg, W.Va.

The gesture was to make amends for that company’s use of prisoner of war labor in its mines.

Fisher’s father did not work at the mines, but was a POW who worked at a dock in Japan. It was Fisher’s book about her father’s experiences that got her invited to the museum for the ceremony.

Fisher’s self-published book, “Daddy Came Home,” was not only sent to the museum for its archives, but 10 copies went home with the Japanese executives.

The biography recalls her father’s personal experience in the prisoner of war camp. Japanese troops recaptured former Pvt. Earl E. Loughner after he escaped the Bataan Death March. He was forced into the docks at a labor camp in Kobe, Japan.

Fisher said the book ensured her father’s legacy.

“The book is not meant to make money,” Fisher said. “It’s to get my dad’s story out there.”

Jim Brockman, museum curator, said having Fisher attend the apology ceremony should have helped her better cope with what happened to her father.

“This was closure for her,” he said. “She seemed very satisfied and relieved.”

Fisher said she could barely express her feelings.

“They took my book to Japan,” she said. “It’s a different kind of sensation.”

Fisher said she arrived at the event with an anxious attitude and although she felt apprehensive, she stayed to honor her father. Then she spoke with former Pvt. Eddie Jackfert, 93, who was specifically addressed for the apology by Hikaru Kimura, senior executive officer of Mitsubishi Mineral Co.

She said Jackfert epitomized forgiveness and set the atmosphere for the event.

“He said to me, ‘We cannot have any hard feelings against these people,’” she said. “I knew at that time I had to have a forgiving heart.”

Fisher said it wasn’t easy to overcome the years of confusion and anger. Her father died in 1956 at age 40, when she was 7. She said the funeral home had later told her that they had never seen a more brutalized body.

But Fisher, with the help of Jackfert’s conviction, understood that the men who tortured her father were not there.

“These people that came over did not harm my dad,” she said.

Fisher said she was impressed the company sent executives rather than public relations personnel, but she was most impressed with Kimura.

“He extended his hand to me,” she said. “And we shook hands.”

Fisher said the hand shake meant more than any words that were offered.

“I was very moved,” she said. “I think my dad would be proud of me.”

Aug. 15 will mark the 70th anniversary of the POWs’ release from their Japanese captors, during World War II.