The ship was built within the specifications of the Washington Naval Treaty that was in place at the time, which placed limits on its tonnage and armament. In 1941, commanded by Captain Tomeo Kaku, Hiryū was assigned to Carrier Division 2. On 7 December 1941 she was with the Strike Force in the attack on Pearl Harbor. She launched one wave of planes against the island of Oahu: ten Kates targeted Arizona, California, eight Kates targeted West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Helena and six Zeros attacked US air bases at Wheeler Field and Barbers Point.

In May 1942, Hiryū sailed on her final mission. On 4 June 1942 she took part in the battle of Midway. At 4:30 AM she launched a strike against Midway Island, destroying planes and damaging installations. After Kaga, Sōryū and Akagi were disabled by air attack at about 10:25 AM, Hiryū was the only operational carrier left to the Japanese. She launched two waves of planes at 10:50 and 12:45 against Yorktown, heavily damaging the American carrier with bombs and torpedoes.Hiryū was attacked at 5:03 PM by 13 SBD Dauntless dive bombers from Enterprise. She was hit by four 1000 lb (453.6 kg) bombs, three on the forward flight deck and one on or near the forward elevator. The explosions started fires among the aircraft on the hangar deck.At 9:23 PM her engines stopped, and at 1:58 AM a major explosion rocked the ship. The order to abandon ship was given shortly afterwards and the survivors were taken off by the destroyers Kazagumo and Makigumo.
                                                                                                                                        -- Wikipedia