Following brief shakedown training, YMS-471 proceeded to Charleston, South Carolina, and began escorting coastwise convoys and conducting minesweeping operations. That duty ended in April 1945 when she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet. After a long voyage which took her by way of the Panama Canal, San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Guam, and Saipan, the minesweeper finally joined the 3rd Fleet off Okinawa in June. During the last week of the month, she and the other ships of Mine Squadron (MinRon) 105 swept mines from the Buckner Bay, Kerama Retto, and Unten Ko areas of the Ryukyus. In July, YMS-471 ventured into the East China Sea for mine disposal operations.