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Buckner Bay proved to offer more excitement than the sweeps. Even the war's waning days possessed elements of danger, on 12 August a Japanese torpedo plane scored a hit on the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38), near Alaska's anchorage. Over the days that ensued, nightly sorties to avoid last-ditch suiciders took place. When the war did finally end in mid-August, the ship went wild with joy, as Alaska's chronicler wrote: "We knew that we would be going home far sooner than any of us had ever expected when we first set out the preceding January for the combat area."

There was, however, still work to be done. On 30 August Alaska sailed from Okinawa as part of the 7th Fleet's occupation forces, and after taking part in a "show of force" in the fellow Sea and Gulf of Chihli, reached Jinsen (later Inchon), Korea, on 8 September 1945. Alaska supported the landing of Army occupation troops at Jinsen, and remained at that port until 26 September, on which date she sailed for Tsingtao, China, making port the following day. She shifted to an anchorage outside the harbor entrance on 11 October to support the 6th Marine Division landings to occupy the key North China seaport, and ultimately remained at Tsmgtao until 13 November, when she got underway to return to Jinsen, there to embark returning Army soldiers homeward-bound as part of Operation "Magic Carpet." Sailing for the United States on 14 November, Alaska stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor before proceeding on to San Francisco.

Steaming thence to the Panama Canal, and completing her transit of the isthmian waterway on 13 December 1945, Alaska proceeded to the Boston Naval Shipyard arriving on 18 December. There she underwent an availability preparing her for inactivation. Departing Boston on 1 Feburary 1946 for her assigned permanent berthing area at Bayonne, N.J., Alaska arrived there the following day. Placed in inactive status, 'in commission in reserve" at Bayonne, on 13 August 1946, Alaska was ultimately placed out of commission, in reserve, on 17 February 1947.

The large cruiser never returned to active duty. Her name struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960, the ship was sold on 30 June 1960 to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers of New York City, to be broken up for scrap.

Alaska (CB-1) was awarded three battle stars for her World War II service.

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Nice, Alpha. You have a way with images.

A bit of general background on the Alaskas -

Naval studies done mostly before 1939 indicated that enemy commercial and logistical destruction could most effectively be done with a combination of surface warships and submarines. Convoys were made to work during the war against U-Boat attack but would have been utterly and helplessly destroyed by a Graf Spee type Panzerschiffe.

Study of the Battle of the River Platte is useful. Graf Spee could out gun any warship she could not run away from. Her armor and made attack upon her with less than 8" high velocity rifles simply wasteful. Battlecruisers with their long range heavy weapons and great speed would get the job done nicely but were very few and expensive and vital to the main job of keeping the Kriegsmarine in port. Recollect Hood and Bismark. Instead cruisers got the job done at the River Platte just fine but it took lots of luck and fine Royal Navy cunning in the old tradition. And plenty of guts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_River_Plate

It became likely that Panzerschiffe would rapidly evolve into machines totally outmatching the largest 8" heavy cruisers. Enter Alaska.

With hindsight one sees that the Alaska ships had inadequate anti-aircraft capability. Six turrets with twin mount 5" 38 caliber guns and scads of 40mm seemed like ridiculous overkill in 1938 but proved inadequate in '43 - '45. I does appear that Alaska was a darn fine shot with her anti-aircraft batteries. Such is the tradition of the United States Navy.

Naval surface to air technique in WWII were an American show. If one has the chance take a look at Navy anti-aircraft gunnery control equipment from 1944. Open the inspection covers and look inside the computers. You will never see better workmanship or design. (No digital equipment available in those days.) The Imperial Japanese Navy was a good teacher, if strict, shall we say.

Much has been learned over the years from Royal Navy gunnery and anti-submarine practice just as compartmentalization, ammunition and propellant storage and handling, damage control technique etc. were learned from the Germans. The Navy is stupid on occasion, the torpedo problems in the Pacific War for example, but not often and rarely for very long. I am still embarrassed by the torpedo story, damn their eyes.