Could the Axis have won?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Novels don't prove general sentiment, just the sentiment of the author.

The man was there when it happened. His feelings reflected those of the general populace, if you care to look into it more closely.

20 million is a hugely inflated figure, as Brenus, said. The real number is much, much smaller. It would mean that more than 2/3 of Ukranians died and at the time, Ukranians actually had a growth in population.

Perhaps so, but millions died. Care to provide some documentation for the part highlighted?

proving that it had much less to do with Stalin and his rule than with old issues

Proves nothing. Vlasov was a half-assed attempt to counter some of the idiotic policies of the Einsatz. If the Germans had at least given Ukrainians the opportunity to strike back at the Stalin regime (perhaps even using the revenge angle), they would have found widespread support for this, instead of providing Stalin with the means for turning things into The Great Patriotic War.

After an attack on a protectorate and a few ships sunk, filled with brave American sailors who were just trying to protect defenseless allies against relentless Japanese expansionism and unimaginable cruelty, American president could make a speech about never giving up until the world is once again safe for democracy, for the sake of American allies and brave, freckled-face boys who died protecting that ideal.

Not the same as revenge for what was viewed as a cowardly act of aggression on US soil. I don't see an attack on the DEI creating the same kind of fervor as the attack on PH. As for the highlighted part, a cursory examination of the state of affairs in the US at the time would show such a speech would fall on unsympathetic ears.

American fleet would have had ample opportunity to attack Japanese troops in transit, reinforce local garrisons and in general harass them at every turn. Having lost the element of surprise, Japanese fleet would have at the mercy of the American fleet.

If the USN battle fleet would've sortied to support either the Philippines or the DEI, they would have been sunk at sea and none of the BB's would have been recoverable like they were off the bottom of Pearl Harbor. The USN was quite far behind the IJN in fleet tactics, pilot training, and carrier aircraft. It took most of 1942 for US admirals to garner the experience on how to conduct modern carrier tactics, and for US pilots to figure out how to fight the Zero-sen.

Their ability to harass the merchant fleet and troop transport would have created unsolvable problems for Japanese.

Kinda hard to do when your fleet is resting on the bottom of the ocean

The Japanese actually did the US a favor by sinking its battleships as it forced the dependance on carriers which eventually led to a drastic change in USN carrier doctrine. Prior to PH, USN doctrine was to disperse the carriers into separate TF's (unlike the Japanese who were the first to form a true strike force utilizing multiple carriers in the same TF). After PH, a new breed of "aviation" admirals moved to the forefront, which eventually led to the formation of the "fast carrier" fleets like the 3rd/5th Fleet.