Did USA ever plan to soften Kyushu with atomic bomb before actual landing?
No, the use of atomic weapons was to prevent the invasion that was in the works and thus save more lives. Like the Normandy Invasion a naval bombardment would have preceded the landings on X-Day, which would have been the first day of the Invasion of Kyushu during Operation Olympic (which was set for sometime in October 1945). Operation Coronet would have followed the following spring with Y-Day marking the Invasion of Honshu on the Kanto Plain near Tokyo and would have also begun with a naval bombardment. Prior to X-Day and Y-Day the home islands probably would have been pounded with conventional bombs in the hopes of softening up resistance. Ironically, one could be lead to believe that the A-bombs were meant to soften Kyushu up for the invasion because the Nagasaki Prefecture, of which the capital is Nagasaki. is located on the island of Kyushu. And while Hiroshima is located on Honshu, the Hiroshima Prefecture (of which the city is the capital) is within the Chugoku region of Honsh
