USS Topeka, a 10,000-ton Cleveland class light cruiser, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. She was commissioned in December 1944, shook down in the Caribbean area and, in April 1945, transited the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet. Between early June and mid-August, Topeka took part in attacks on the Japanese home islands, screening aircraft carriers, making anti-shipping sweeps and firing her guns in bombardments of enemy facilities ashore. She remained in the area for a month after Japan's surrender, and October 1945 steamed back to the United States, transporting over five hundred servicemen home from Okinawa.

In January 1946, following an overhaul, Topeka began the first of her post-war tours of Far Eastern duty. This lasted until November and included visits to Japan, China, the Philippines and Guam. A second Western Pacific cruise took place between September 1947 and May 1948. After operations along the West Coast, Topeka was prepared for inactivation at San Francisco, California, where she decommissioned in June 1949.

Topeka was towed through the Panama Canal in early 1957 to undergo conversion to a guided missile cruiser at the New York Naval Shipyard. Redesignated CLG-8 in May 1957, she was in the yard for nearly three years, recommissioning in March 1960 with a greatly altered appearance, especially aft of amidships where her guns had all been replaced by a large superstructure, a launcher for "Terrier" anti-aircraft guided missiles, and an extensive suite of new radars. She soon returned to the Pacific, where she made four more "WestPac" cruises in the next six years. Topeka's November 1965 - May 1966 Far Eastern tour included Vietnam War combat duty, during which she fired her guns "in anger" for the first time in more than two decades.

Though still based in California, Topeka's next overseas deployment was made to the Mediterranean Sea between August 1967 and January 1968. After shifting her homeport to Mayport, Florida, in March 1968, the cruiser again operated with the Sixth Fleet in the "Med" from July into December. Early in 1969 Topeka was sent to Boston, Massachusetts, where she was decommissioned in June. Laid up at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1973. USS Topeka was sold for scrapping in March 1975.