During service in the Asiatic Fleet, "Pillsbury" was involved in the 1927 Nanking Incident as part of a U.S. Navy flotilla helping protect American interests around the Yangtze River. On 27 November 1941, by order of the Commander Asiatic Fleet, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, "Pillsbury" departed Manila under the command of Lt. Commander Harold C. Pound, together with other units of the fleet. When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, she was operating in the vicinity of Borneo.