I can only comment from the Korean perspective, and from that perspective he was pro-Japanese, having the Taft-Katsura agreement signed in 1905 to recognize Japanese dominance/sovereignty over Korea while Japan recognized US dominance/sovereignty over the Philippines. This meant that Korea and Emperor Kojong had no one to stand up for them against a slow takeover by Japan. Korea and Kojong had heavily relied on a "good offices" clause in a previous agreement between the US and Korea, thinking that meant that the US had "guaranteed" Korean independence, but that was not the case at all.

One note is that Japanese imperialists tried framing the takeover of Korea as a humanitarian one, meaning that they were actually helping the "poor" Koreans, something that many bought. And the UK and other great powers actually wanted to stop the Japanese takeover of Korea, but due to the US not accepting the invite of the UK to do this it didn't happen (maybe there were more reasons, if so that wasn't covered by my professor, as my professor focuses on American perspective).

Source is a class with professor Wayne Patterson on Korean-American relations which I finished yesterday at Korea University.