[2] Kiyonami was completed on 25 January 1943, and was assigned to the 31st destroyer division (alongside Naganami and Makinami), and saw her first active service escorting the axillary cruisers Bangkok Maru and Saigon Maru from Yokosuka to various occupied territories throughout March, then saw out the next few months of her career partaking in convoy escorting duties.

During the opening stages of the battle of Kolombangara, Jintsū fired her searchlights, enabling the three allied cruisers to engage her.

A hellfire of 6-inch (152 mm) shell hits mostly from Honolulu and Saint Louis blasted Jintsū into a floating wreck, enabling her to be finished off by the destroyer USS Taylor's torpedo battery.

Kiyonami and the others swerved away retreated from the battle scene to reload their torpedoes, which took around 10 minutes, and quickly sailed back to fight the enemy formation.

When detected, every US ship targeted Yukikaze, which was straddled and near missed several times, but not directly hit by a single shell.

In turn, Kiyonami fired her torpedoes again simultaneously with the other destroyers, and watched as multiple made their mark.