North American P-51C-11-NT Mustang, S/N 44-10816 "Evalina", 26th FS, 51st FG, 14th AF, USAAF. Captured at Suchin airfield, China, on 16 January 1945, taken on charge by Japanese Army Air Inspection Center in Fussa airfield, Yokota, Japan.

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"I flew to Omasa airfield and finally got a look at the P-51. I could see the superiority of its equipment, and its shiny
fuselage with the open red mouth of a dragon. I saw several red dots on the side of the cockpit, probably recording
Japanese aircraft the pilot had shot down. With the radiator under the fuselage, it looked very sleek and deadly."
- Maj. Yohei Hinoki, 64th Sentai, IJAAF

The North American P-51C-11-NT Mustang with registration number 44-10816 was manufactured at the Dallas plant in Texas as 111-28949. Upon commissioning, it was nicknamed "Evalina" after the girlfriend of its pilot, First Lieutenant Oliver E. Strawbridge. At the turn of 1945, the fighter was stationed in China with the 26th Fighter Squadron, itself an element of the 51st Fighter Group. The unit’s combat trail had started in India and proceeded through Burma and China, ending in French Indochina, a territory that comprised present-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

the circumstances of its capture are still not been fully clarified. On 16 January 1945, “Evalina” made an emergency landing on the Chinese airfield of Suchin, which was still held by the Japanese. While the Americans concluded that this was the result of a navigational error, Japanese sources mention an emergency landing – and then muddle the story still further. Namely, some maintain that the aircraft belly-landed in a rice paddy near the base, but according to others the fighter made a normal landing necessitated by a technical fault.

Most historian reject the former version of events, logically assuming that Japanese ground crews would have been incapable of repairing damage sustained by an Allied fighter during a wheel up landing made in difficult terrain, especially considering the complexity of Mustang's underbelly radiator/oil cooler arrangement and lack of documentation suggesting such repair had been carried out. Either way, the chance acquisition of a virtually brand-new and fully functional Mustang was a godsend to the IJAAF, which rapidly seized the deadly opponent and flown it to Japan for extensive testing.

Hinomarus were quickly painted over the American stars and "Evalina” was flown back to the Japanese Army Air Inspection Center in Fussa (now Yokota Air Base) by Yasuhiko Kuroe, a Japanese ace with 30 victories under his belt. Kuroe recalls:

"I was astonished with its performance. Turn characteristics were splendid, almost the same as the Ki-84 in a horizontal turn.
The radio transmitter was excellent, the armament and other miscellaneous equipment was very good, particularly when compared with
their Japanese equivalents, and moreover it had a radio direction-finder. Its dash speed was inferior to that of our imported Fw 190A but
diving speed and stability during the dive were excellent. After fuel consumption tests we estimated it would be able to fly over the Japanese
homeland from Iwo Jima. Sometime later this came true."

Evalina was later transferred to the Akeno Flying Training Division for further evaluation and mock combat against fighters such as the Ki-43, Ki-61 and Ki-84. In mid-April 1945, Kuroe was placed in charge of a “flying circus” composed of captured Allied aircraft. The group toured Japanese fighter units to train pilots how to fight the opponent's aircraft. One of the pilots who benefited from this was a First Lieutenant from the 18th Sentai, Masatsugu Sumita, who recalled that he "learned how to take his aircraft out of the P-51's axis when being chased". At the time, the 18th Sentai was flying the Ki-100, one of the few Japanese types that matched the Mustang's general performances, albeit with inferior equipment.

"Evalina" was finally grounded by a burned-out generator, the remain was bulldozed into a lake somewhere in Japan at the final days of the war. Two P-51Ds were reportedly captured in mainland Japan in 1945, but their fate is unknown.

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Although "Evalina" was flown regularly by Lt. Strawbridge and was indeed his personal steed, it came to attention that he might not be the pilot involved in the incident. Around the mid-nineties, First Lieutenant Strawbridge’s granddaughter, Sara, stated that although she had never met her grandfather (due to family reasons), she knew with absolute certainty that he had not been the pilot of the Mustang on that fateful day of 16 January. Furthermore, she informed that her grandfather had served in the USAAF until the very end of the conflict and had never been a Japanese POW. From what she recollected, he had died in 1987 in the USA – The name given to the aircraft, “Evalina”, was indeed that of his then girlfriend. Their love fizzled out, however, and after the war First Lieutenant Strawbridge married a woman by the names of Ruth Anne.

The topic was taken up by a few historians, with the renowned Henry Sakaida first and foremost among them. Finally, it was determined that the Mustang had been piloted by First Lieutenant Sam McMillan, Strawbridge’s friend from the 26th Fighter Squadron. Captured and imprisoned by the Japanese, he survived the war and returned home. When this research was being conducted, First Lieutenant McMillan was still alive, living in his hometown in Connecticut. However, due to his age and state of health, he did not assist in clarifying the circumstances of the incident. Sakaida published his conclusions in “Flight Journal” magazine sometime around the year 2000. Ms. Susan Strawbridge-Bryant assisted in collecting a considerable part of the materials.