I was just reading about the Battle of Midway, and it sounds like Japan lost all 4 of the aircraft carriers deployed in the battle. What did the airborne carrier pilots do after the battle was over and there was nowhere for them to land? Did they attempt to land on damaged carriers, ditch near friendly ships, parachute out, land at Midway, kamikaze? They all sound like pretty bad options for a Japanese pilot.
It bears noting that the Japanese didn't lose all four in one go - Hiryu managed to evade attack during the first strike, and thus took on some refugee aircraft, and most of the refugees were fighters on combat air patrol. u/kieslowskifan covers just this question, but of course, any further input from anyone else is more than welcome.