Zuikaku was one of the most modern Japanese aircraft carriers when commissioned, and saw successful action throughout numerous battles during the Pacific War.

She also participated in the Indian Ocean raid, where her dive bombers sank or helped to sink several major British warships.

Zuikaku and her sister Shōkaku were detached from Kidō Butai to support Operation Mo, the invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, during which her torpedo bombers contributed to the sinking of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington at the Battle of the Coral Sea; however heavy airgroup losses and damage to Shōkaku resulted in both carriers missing the Battle of Midway.

Under the command of Captain Yokokawa Ichibei, Zuikaku departed for Oita Bight on October 7, arriving at her destination the next day where for the first time she joined her sister ship Shōkaku.

[3] On 26 November 1941, she left Hitokappu Bay for the attack on Pearl Harbor as part of the Kidō Butai ("Mobile Force").

On the 24th of December, Zuikaku arrived back at Kure alongside Shōkaku, Kaga, and Akagi (Sōryū and Hiryū having previously departed to attack Wake Island), and she was drydocked from the 30th to January 3rd.

[4][5][6] On the 9th, Zuikaku and Shōkaku raided Trincomalee, where they destroyed the cargo ship SS Sagaing and damaged the monitor HMS Erebus.

Later that night, a Japanese floatplane launched from the battleship Haruna managed to locate the light carrier HMS Hermes, and Zuikaku's air group was the first to respond, quickly followed by Shōkaku.

On the 7th, a large US naval force was located by spotters from the heavy cruisers Furutaka and Kinugasa, prompting both ships to launch their planes, fearing US carriers in the area.

Not wanting their efforts to go to waste, planes from both Zuikaku and Shōkaku combined to sink the destroyer Sims and the oil tanker Neosho.

[7][8]: 189–190 Alerted by intercepted and decrypted Japanese naval messages, the Americans dispatched the carriers USS Yorktown and Lexington to stop the operation.

Hidden by a rain squall, Zuikaku escaped detection, but Shōkaku was hit three times by bombs and was unable to launch or recover her aircraft.

Her dive bombers, commanded by Tamotsu Ema, then attacked and crippled Yorktown with a bomb hit that caused severe damage to her hangar bay and aviation storage rooms and over a dozen near misses.

[3] In August 1942, commanded by Captain Tameteru Notomo, Zuikaku was dispatched as part of the First Carrier Division along with the repaired Shōkaku and their escorts to oppose the American offensive in the Solomon Islands.

They nearly sank her, with a squadron of seven dive bombers, three from Shōkaku and four from Zuikaku, nearly delivering the final blow when North Carolina shot down every single attacking plane.

These actions left USS Hornet as the only American fleet carrier operating in the Pacific, shortly joined by the repaired Enterprise.

On the 15th, a Japanese patrol plane spotted the destroyer USS Meredith towing a barge that carried fuel and bombs for US forces at Guadalcanal.

Zuikaku's air group quickly responded, and in a ten-minute battle hit Meredith with three torpedoes and a number of bombs, causing the destroyer to roll over and sink.

In May, she was assigned to a mission to counterattack the American offensive in the Aleutian Islands, but this operation was cancelled after the Allied victory on Attu on 29 May 1943.

Later in 1943, under the command of Captain Kikuchi Tomozo, she was again based at Truk and operated against U.S. forces in the Marshall Islands, but never managed to see combat throughout the rest of the year.

However, they were sufficient to score Zuikaku another kill when on 27 February, her torpedo bombers hunted down the submarine USS Grayback and quickly sank her with a single 250-kilogram (551 lb) bomb hit.

In October 1944, she was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's decoy Northern Force in Operation Shō-Gō 1, the Japanese counterattack to the Allied landings on Leyte.

Zuikaku rolled over and sank stern-first at 14:14, taking the lives of Rear Admiral (promoted from captain 10 days earlier) Kaizuka Takeo and 842 of the ship's crew; 862 officers and men were rescued by the destroyers Wakatsuki and Kuwa.