Kirishima patrolled on occasion off the Chinese coast during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

On the eve of World War II, she sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Kido Butai as an escort for the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

As part of the Third Battleship Division, Kirishima participated in many of the Imperial Japanese Navy's early actions in 1942, providing support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in the Indian Ocean raid of April 1942.

Kirishima was the third of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kongō-class battlecruisers, a group of capital ships designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston.

[4] The keel of Kirishima was laid down at the Nagasaki shipyards of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on 17 March 1912, with most of the parts used in her construction manufactured in Japan.

In April 1916, Kirishima and Haruna departed Sasebo Naval Base to patrol the East China Sea for ten days.

[3] Following the end of World War I, the Japanese Empire gained control of former German possessions in the central Pacific per the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

[10] Due to Japan's warm relations with the British Empire and the United States at the time, Kirishima and other Japanese warships became significantly less active than during the war.

Following the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1923, the capital ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy assisted in rescue work until the end of the month.

[12] Provided that new additions did not exceed 3,000 tons, existing capital ships were permitted to be upgraded with improved torpedo bulges and deck armor.

[12] By the time the Washington Treaty had been fully implemented in Japan, only three classes of World War I-era capital ships—the Fusō and Ise-class battleships, and the Kongō-class battlecruisers—remained active.

[13] Stripped of the ability to construct new capital ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy instead opted to significantly upgrade and reconfigure their existing battleships and battlecruisers.

[N 1] Six days after Kirishima's reconstruction was completed, Japan pledged to scrap several battleships and signed the London Naval Treaty, which placed further bans on capital ship construction until 1937.

On 25 February 1933, based on a report by the Lytton Commission, the League of Nations agreed that Japan had violated Chinese sovereignty in its invasion of Manchuria.

[17] On 18 November 1934, Kirishima was drydocked in Sasebo Naval Arsenal in preparation for her second reconstruction, which would enable her to function alongside Japan's growing fleet of fast carriers.

[3] On 11 November 1941, after a series of transfers between Japanese naval bases, Kirishima was outfitted in preparation for coming hostilities and assigned—alongside her sister ships—to the Third Battleship Division.

On 26 November, Kirishima departed Hitokappu Bay, Kurile Islands in the company of Hiei and six Japanese fast carriers of the First Air Fleet Striking Force (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku).

[19] On 7 December 1941, aircraft from these six carriers attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at their home base of Pearl Harbor, sinking four U.S. Navy battleships and numerous other vessels.

[20] On 8 January 1942, Kirishima departed Japan for Truk Naval Base in the Caroline Islands alongside the Carrier Strike Force.

[3] In March 1942, while supporting fleet operations off of Java in the Dutch East Indies, one of Kirishima's floatplanes bombed an enemy merchant vessel.

[3] In April 1942, Kirishima and the Third Battleship division joined five fleet carriers and two cruisers in an attack against British naval bases in the Indian Ocean.

[3] On 8 April, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked the Royal Navy base at Trincomalee in Ceylon, only to find that all of Admiral James Somerville's remaining warships had withdrawn the previous night.

[22][23] Upon returning to Japan, Kirishima was drydocked and her secondary armament configuration modified with the addition of 25 mm antiaircraft guns in twin mounts.

[3] In August 1942, she departed Japan for the Solomon Islands in the company of Hiei, three carriers, three cruisers and eleven destroyers, in response to the American invasion of Guadalcanal.

During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Kirishima was part of Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe's Vanguard Force, which provided distant cover to Nagumo's carrier groups.

On 10 November 1942, Kirishima departed Truk alongside Hiei and eleven destroyers in preparation to shell American positions on Guadalcanal in advance of a major transport convoy of Japanese troops.

A further expedition to the wreck by Paul Allen's RV Petrel in January 2019 provided detailed information on both the damage received during the battle and confirms the subsequent detonation of her forward main magazines during the sinking process.