they covered the capture of Guam with strikes on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima. After a strike on Palau and Ulithi, San Juan was ordered to San Francisco for overhaul, and departed from Eniwetok on 4 August escorting Yorktown. Following refresher training at San Diego and Pearl Harbor, San Juan joined Lexingtons task group at Ulithi on 21 November. In early December, she screened the carriers in strikes on Formosa and Luzon in support of landings on Mindoro. During this operation, she was sent alone within scouting range of Japanese airfields in an effort to draw out Japanese aircraft by radio deception, but none rose to the bait. On 18–19 December, the force was battered by a typhoon, and returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve. 1945 Underway again six days later, the carriers covered the occupation of Luzon with strikes on Formosa, Okinawa, and Luzon from 3–9 January 1945, and then from 10–20 January raided ports and shipping in the South China Sea, particularly Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay, and Hong Kong. After replenishing at Ulithi, San Juan escorted Hornet in air strikes on Tokyo during the Iwo Jima operation in February and then returned to Ulithi on 1 March to prepare for the Okinawa invasion. San Juan rejoined Hornet on 22 March and, until 30 April, operated with her to the north and east of Nansei Shoto, interrupting her regular occupation of supporting air strikes and replenishment at sea with a bombardment, on 21 April, of Minami Daito Shima, a small island about 180 mi (290 km) from Okinawa. Planes from San Juans group helped sink the giant on 7 April. After nine days at Ulithi, the Hornet group was back on station off Nansei Shoto for strikes on targets in Japan. San Juan arrived in Leyte Gulf on 13 June for repairs and then joined , on 1 July for more strikes on the Japanese home islands. She was at sea when the news of the Japanese capitulation was received on 15 August, and, on the 27th, after 59 days at sea, she joined the van forces for the triumphal entry of the 3rd Fleet into Sagami Wan, just outside Tokyo Bay. San Juans embarked unit commander, Commodore Rodger W. Simpson, was assigned responsibility for freeing, caring for, and evacuating Allied prisoners of war in Japan. On 29 August, the ship entered Tokyo Bay and landed parties which liberated