The San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection, 1935-2010 (bulk 1942-2010) first documents the number of Japanese-American students attending San Jose State College prior to the internment. Photocopies of student directories and lists of graduating students provide this information. Some photocopies of newspaper clippings document activities of Japanese-American students at San Jose State College during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Next, the collection documents the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the subsequent impact of internment policies on public and political memory both city-wide and nationally. This part of the collection consists of newspaper clippings, magazines, correspondence, memorabilia, brochures, government reports, and photocopied excerpts from books and periodicals. Included are brochures for the Japanese-American National Museum and literature and mailings from the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the Tule Lake Committee, organizations dedicated to preserving public memory of the internment. Also featured are clippings from the San Jose Mercury News and some editions of the West Magazine supplement. The clippings concern topics such as the personal stories of detainees, the history of the Japanese-American Citizens League, the relocation and detainment of Japanese Peruvians in the United States, and the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. There are two articles by Marjorie Fernandes, one entitled, "From Salinas to Poston: One Woman's Journey" and the other, "Japanese-American Women: Immigration and Evacuation". (The publisher of these articles is unknown.) Also contained are a published presidential message and reports and legislation from the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the California Senate, all concerning the Japanese-Americans and their forced resettlement.

The collection also contains information about the Nisei Diploma Project at San José State University. Included are materials that document SJSU's efforts to locate and contact the former students and includes samples of the application to receive the degree, SJSU memos communicating progress on the project, spreadsheets compiling data on the former students, correspondence from the university to the students, and photos of those awarded degrees during the Commencement ceremony.