As a coastal defense ship, her class is even smaller than destroyers, and as such, she is portrayed as an "elementary school student" character, even younger than the generally "middle school" appearances of the destroyers. However, Hirato comes off looking like a old woman and her somewhat soft-spoken demeanor seems to further support this.
The historical ship was completed on September 28th, 1943 and sunk by USS Growler (SS-215) on September 12th, 1944 in the South China Sea.
