Following shakedown off Cuba, "Perkins" entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for conversion to a radar picket destroyer. In July 1945 she underwent refresher training, rendezvoused with the aircraft carrier on 20 July, and headed for the Pacific. At Pearl Harbor she joined Destroyer Division 52 (DesDiv 52) and on 19 August sailed for the Far East. She entered Tokyo Bay the day of the formal Japanese surrender, on 2 September, and on the 3rd joined Task Force 38 (TF 38). Operations in the Marshalls, Marianas, and off Japan followed and in April 1946 she returned to Pearl Harbor. On the 28th she arrived at San Diego, California whence she operated for the next year.