Retention of the Japanese emperor as head ?

Does "retention of the Japanese emperor as head" mean "keeping the Japanese emperor in his throne (let him still lead the nation)"?

Context:

According to Japanese historian Takashi Fujitani, the memo reveals a "condescension toward Japanese people" and a "purely instrumentalist and manipulative stance".^[13]In the abstract to his article, "The Reischauer Memo: Mr. Moto, Hirohito, and Japanese American Soldiers", Fujitani writes:
Already at this early date in the war, Reischauer proposed retention of the Japanese emperor as head of a postwar “puppet regime” that would serve U.S. interests in East Asia. He also argued that Japanese Americans had until then been a “sheer liability” and that the United States could turn them into an “asset” by enlisting them in the U.S. military. He reasoned that Japanese American soldiers would be useful for propaganda purposes – that is, to demonstrate to the world and particularly the “yellow and brown peoples” that the United States was not a racist nation.^[14]