After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she, along with the other Matson passenger ships "Lurline", "Matsonia", "Mariposa" and "Monterey", and 33 Matson freighters, were pressed into military service by the U.S. Maritime Commission. The U.S. transferred the "Manoa" to the Soviet Union in 1943 as part of the Lend-Lease Program. They rechristened her as "Balkhash" (Soviet registration M-11744), replacing a ship of the same name that had been sunk by the German air force during the evacuation of Tallinn, Estonia. She was used at least twice by the Soviets during World War II to transport Estonian prisoners to the Gulag.