Anyhow, I sent pictures of the alternator to Hitachi, and they said they thought it was a genuine Hitachi unit, but couldn't be sure.
Well, after about three days in service, the alternator stopped charging. At this point I'm convinced that the car has electrical demons and is eating alternators... I'm so pissed with it that it sat from November until last week, when I reinstalled the old factory alternator with an almost new factory diode assembly I +had sitting around in a box, and new bearings.
When I pulled the new "Hitachi" alternator apart, I found a bunch of parts marked "TRANSPO-CN" and wires on the rotor that weren't tucked in that had rubbed on the stator until they broke.
So long story short - eight hours of wasted labor and 5 months of not driving the car due to poor quality control at some aftermarket Chinese sweat shop. Oh, and Hitachi confirmed that this is indeed not one of their units after seeing the internal pictures.
Here are some pictures
