Originally laid down as the submarine tender Takasaki (Japanese: 高崎, "Tall Cape"), she was renamed and converted while under construction into an aircraft carrier.

Significantly damaged during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in that campaign, after repairs Zuihō covered the evacuation of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal in early 1943.

The submarine support ship Takasaki was laid down on 20 June 1935 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and was designed to be converted to either a fleet oiler or a light aircraft carrier as needed.

Her original diesel engines were intended to give her a top speed of 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph), but they were replaced by a pair of geared steam turbine sets as part of her conversion.

The turbines produced a total of 52,000 shaft horsepower (39,000 kW) which gave Zuihō a maximum speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph).

Transferred to the First Fleet after the Third Carrier Division was disbanded on 1 April, Zuihō remained in Japanese waters until June when she participated in the Battle of Midway.

[6] She was assigned to the Main Body of the invasion force and her aircraft complement consisted of six Mitsubishi A5M "Claude" and six A6M2 "Zero" fighters, and twelve Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers.

Late on 5 June, the fighters of her combat air patrol drove off an American Consolidated PBY Catalina reconnaissance aircraft of VP-44 that had spotted the Main Body.

Zuihō was ordered the following afternoon to prepare to launch an airstrike, together with aircraft from the seaplane tender Nisshin, on the carriers that the Japanese imagined were pursuing them, but this was cancelled on the morning of 7 June when it became clear that there was no pursuit.

The Japanese and American carrier forces discovered each other in the early morning of 26 October at the opening of the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and each side launched airstrikes.

Two of Enterprise's Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers operating as armed scouts hit Zuihō with 500-pound (230 kg) bombs while the fleet was launching the first and second wave against the American carriers.

They flew to Rabaul on mid-March to participate in Operation I-Go, a land-based aerial offensive against Allied bases in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

Japanese intelligence reports pointed to another American attack in the Wake-Marshall Islands area in mid-October and Admiral Mineichi Koga sortied the Combined Fleet, including the First Carrier Division, on 17 October.

The fighters claimed to have shot down 25 American aircraft at the cost of eight pilots; the survivors flew back to Truk and remained ashore.

Skate unsuccessfully attacked Zuihō on 30 November, while Sailfish torpedoed and sank Chūyō five days later with heavy loss of life.

The new base was closer to the oil wells in Borneo on which the Navy relied and also to the Palau and western Caroline Islands where the Japanese expected the next American attack.

However, the location lacked an airfield on which to train the green pilots and American submarines were very active in the vicinity which restricted the ships to the anchorage.

The Americans discovered the retiring Japanese fleet during the afternoon and Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered an airstrike launched.

[21] This required the transfer of most of the 653rd Naval Air Group to Formosa and Luzon to attack the American forces, with only a few aircraft retained for carrier operations.

[23] On 17 October Toyoda alerted the fleet that Shō-Gō 1 was imminent and activated the plan the following day after receiving reports of the landings on Leyte.

This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters; the survivors landed at airfields on Luzon.

They were spotted at 16:05, but Admiral William Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 38, decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike.

He did, however, turn all of his ships north to position himself for a dawn attack on the Japanese carriers the next day in what came to be called the Battle off Cape Engaño.

Zuihō attempted to launch her few remaining aircraft, but was hit by a single bomb on her aft flight deck after a number of torpedo-carrying Avengers missed.