Sailing from San Francisco, California, 2 January 1945, Effingham trained at Guadalcanal with the 1st Marines, then staged at Ulithi for the invasion landings on Okinawa 1 April.

With the end of the war, she transported troops to Jinsen, Korea, and Taku, China, for the reoccupation of those countries.

In October and November she embarked Chinese troops at Hong Kong for transfer to Chinwangtao and Qingdao.

She returned to the U.S. west coast in December bringing home servicemen, and after a similar voyage to the Far East on "Operation Magic Carpet" duty (which also returned Mochitsura Hashimoto to Japan after he testified at the Charles B. McVay III court-martial), sailed for the U.S. East Coast.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.