Battle of Cape Esperance
From September 1942, "Nisshin" was at Kavieng in the Solomon Islands, where she was assigned to a number of Tokyo Express high speed transport runs to Guadalcanal through the end of November. These missions included the transport of artillery used during the Battle of Cape Esperance. On 28 September, she narrowly missed an attack by east of the island of Kokoda. In October, she was damaged during an attack by an American dive bomber north of Tassafaronga. She was unloading at Tassafaronga during a subsequent run on 12 October when the Battle of Cape Esperance began, but was able with withdraw without engaging in combat. and in November she was withdrawn to Truk.