Following discharge of her cargo, "Arenac" got underway on 8 July to return to the West Coast of the United States. Port calls at Saipan and Guam preceded the transport's arrival at San Francisco, California, on 28 July. Three days later, the vessel entered a shipyard at Richmond, California for an intermediate maintenance availability. She resumed operations on 11 August and made a course for Pearl Harbor. While the ship was en route, she received word of Japan's capitulation ending World War II. "Arenac" arrived in Hawaiian waters on the 17th and took on personnel for passage to the western Pacific. She set sail for Eniwetok on the 20th and after a brief pause at that atoll, stood out to sea to rendezvous with a convoy bound for Ulithi.