Hiyo was the lead ship of a two-carrier class, with her sister Junyo. Both were laid down as large passenger liners and converted into carriers. Hiyo was built by Kawasaki at Kobe, launched on 24 June 1941 and commissioned on 31 July 1942, shortly after the Battle of Midway.
She reached Truk with Junyo on 9 October 1942 to join the 3rd Fleet in the Guadalcanal fighting. On the night of 16 October the two carriers were sent south to launch against the American transports off Lunga Point. She missed the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands later that month because of an electrical generator fire. Part of her air group flew from Buin in November and attacked ships off Lunga Point on 11 November.
In mid-1943 the submarine Trigger torpedoed her off Miyakejima and she spent about three months under repair. On 20 June 1944, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, an American torpedo hit set off a gasoline-vapour explosion and she sank, with the loss of 247 officers and ratings, about a fifth of her complement.
Sources: Wikipedia (ship articles), the Kure Maritime History Science Museum photograph records on Wikimedia Commons, and combinedfleet.com for the Chitose-class histories. No commanding-officer records were available for these ships.