[citation needed] Following a shakedown and training cruise off San Diego in the summer of 1943, Oakland sailed back to Pearl Harbor arriving on 3 November.

More than fifty Japanese G4M torpedo bombers were left intact on Kwajalein, yet despite objections of the involved air crews the carriers failed to follow up on the raid.

This inaction allowed the previously identified wing of torpedo bombers from Kwajalein to attack the formation during the evening and night of the 20th.

[4] Then, despite a night-long series of Japanese aerial attacks on 21–22 February, to hit the Marianas with damaging blows, Oakland's gunners bagged two more enemy planes and assisted in splashing two others before returning to Majuro.

[4] Following anti-aircraft training, Oakland helped to attack Guam on 11 June, then steamed north to hit the Volcano and Bonin Islands by the 14th.

The group delivered a withering air-sea bombardment against Iwo and Chichi Jima on 3–4 July, and by the 5th was speeding south for a return engagement in the Marianas.

Oakland and Helm teamed up to recover downed pilots off Guam, and fired at targets on Orote Peninsula.

An attack group was quickly formed, consisting of Oakland, Santa Fe, Mobile and Biloxi, and Destroyer Division 91.

[4] Detached from the task group at 1241, the killer band raced at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h) between Ototo and Yome Jima and arrived on the scene at about 1730.

Oakland made three runs shelling shipping in Chichi's harbor of Funtami Ko, and helped to silence a shore battery before she retired at 1119 on 5 August.

Oakland then covered the withdrawal of the two hit ships, before participating in the strikes against Luzon from 17–19 October and supporting the landings on Leyte the 20th.

[4] En route to Ulithi on the 24th, Oakland received orders to backtrack at once to help stop the Japanese Fleet which was converging on Leyte Gulf.

The rest of the month was utilized in making additional strikes against Okinawa and conducting gunnery exercises with drones and towed sleeves.

A trio of life rafts were cut loose from Oakland to aid in the rescue of Bunker Hill survivors sighted ahead.

On the 29th she shifted back to TG 38.1 under Admiral Halsey and made for Leyte Gulf, anchoring in San Pedro Bay on 1 June.

Berthed several thousand yards away from USS Missouri (BB-63), Oakland provided a box seat for her sailors to witness the unforgettable climax to their war.

[4][5] While Oakland lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay on the night of 27 September, a typhoon swept close to the harbor entrance.

[4] On 1 October, Oakland sailed for Okinawa to embark homeward bound veterans for a "magic carpet" voyage to San Francisco.

At the year's end, the Navy turned the task of bringing home the veterans solely over to its transportation service, and Oakland was ordered to an inactivation area at Bremerton, Washington.

[4] Reprieve came in the form of a change in orders and, instead of inactivation, Oakland was slated to continue as an active postwar fleet unit.

The light cruiser operated out of that port and Shanghai, for the next three months, conducting almost a dozen patrols in the East China Sea.

As part of that response, Oakland supplied a small landing force of sailors to help out the Marines in Tsing-tao.

Tensions eased in June and the light cruiser departed China on 20 July, stopping at Yokosuka and Pearl Harbor before arriving at San Diego on 8 August.

In July 2002, they were installed in the Port of Oakland's Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, on the western waterfront, at the site of the former Fleet and Industrial Supply Center.

[citation needed] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.