The Japanese player decides to bypass with one of his fighters and go after the U.S, planes on a bombing mission. The first part of air-to-air combat is now resolved between dogfighting fighters from both sides.
In air-to-air combat, the U.S. fighter needs a "3 or less" to score a hit and rolls a "2". The Japanese fighter also needs a "3 or less" but rolls a "4" and misses. The Japanese player needs to remove one of his air-to-air fighters as a casualty. He chooses the fighter in air-to-air combat rather than his bypassing interceptor as it has not had a chance to fire yet.
Next, the Japanese bypassing interceptor fires at the U.S. planes on a bombing mission needing a "3 or less" to hit. Because it is a fighter on a bombing mission, the U.S. fighter does not get to shoot back. The Japanese player rolls a "5" and misses - the U.S. plane gets through! The U.S. fighter and the two Japanese planes assigned to bombing missions are now moved over to the Naval combat board.
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