He was thus in command of Cruiser Division 8 (CruDiv8) during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent Battle of Wake Island.

[3] However, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 12–13 November, when assigned to bombard Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, he broke off his attack after encountering an almost completely crippling 40 minutes of intense combat with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan's Task Group 67.4 (TG 67.4).

Abe himself was wounded – and his chief of staff (Captain Masakane Suzuki) was killed – by machine-gun fire from the USS Laffey, a destroyer that he sank afterwards.

But he still had the undamaged battleship Kirishima to bombard Henderson Field and enough destroyers to finish off damaged Allied vessels.

His failure to aggressively push through his attack against an inferior enemy force created tremendous controversy, and he was relieved of his command by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.