Yahara was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1800) on 6 June 1944 at Bayonne, New Jersey, by the East Coast Shipyard, Inc.; launched on 30 July 1944; sponsored by Miss Cynthia Tenety; converted for naval service at Brooklyn, New York, by the Marine Basin Co.; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 29 September 1944.

Following shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Yahara sailed for the Netherlands West Indies on 22 November to take on a cargo of aviation gasoline and diesel oil at Aruba.

Loaded to capacity, she sailed on 1 December for the west coast; transited the Panama Canal on the 6th; and proceeded via San Diego, California, to Hawaii.

However, she stood by at Ulithi, awaiting instructions through all of April and the first half of May before the long-awaited orders arrived and directed her to join Task Force 51.

She remained in the Okinawa area through the cessation of hostilities in August, at Naha, le Shima, Chimu Wan, and Buckner Bay.

Decommissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 21 May, Yahara was struck from the Navy list on 19 July 1946 and transferred to the War Shipping Administration, Maritime Commission, on 5 November 1946.

Homeported at Oslo, Norway, from 1947 to 1952, she served the Texas Oil Company's Norwegian subsidiary and then sailed under the British flag with first the Verbomilia Steamship Co. and later with the Cousotanker Co., Ltd. (both of London) in 1953 and 1954.