The collection consists of personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary and civil rights advocate, Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers, including Ayako Sakai's letters from the Tanforan Assembly Center; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, anti-internment organizations, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about incarceration of Japanese Americans created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide.

Comprising correspondence, reports, recommendations, notes, addresses, and other documents, Lincoln Kanai and the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association papers (1942) document conditions at the camps, as well as Kanai's involvement in the anti-internment movement. Included in these files are reports from the Puyallup, Tanforan, Pinedale, and Santa Anita Assembly Centers; written protests; and copies of letters from Robert Sproul and to Dorothea Lange. The records of the Japanese American Citizen League of San Francisco, also dated from 1942, include minutes, newsletters, bulletins, and correspondence documenting that organization's advocacy work on behalf of Japanese Americans during World War II. Ayako Sakai papers (1942-1943) comprise letters, poetry, and other documents, many of which were sent to Sakai by family members and friends while she was incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno.

Joseph R. Goodman correspondence and other papers (1942-1943) include letters written to and from Goodman documenting his advocacy efforts on behalf of the Sakai family, Japanese American students, and the Japanese American community in San Francisco and nationwide. Correspondents include Goodman's friends Ayako Sakai, George Sakai, and Lincoln Kanai; the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council; the Fellowship of Reconciliation; the American Friends Service Committee, Northern California Section; the Northern California Committee on Fair Play for Citizens and Aliens of Japanese Ancestry; the Sakai House, a San Francisco cooperative; and the War Relocation Authority. Goodman's papers also include letters written to and by Lincoln Kanai, which Kanai copied for Goodman's files.

In addition to these papers, the collection includes publications, photographs, and ephemera created at the Topaz Relocation Center (1942-1944), where Goodman taught high school science and math. Among these are the journals Volunteers for Victory, Topaz Times, All Aboard, and Trek; the Topaz High School newspaper Topazette; photographs of the Topaz High School football team; and a 1943 copy of Ramblings, the Topaz High School yearbook, owned by Lincoln Kanai.

The collection also contains a wide variety of published material collected by Goodman documenting the incarceration of Japanese American and anti-Japanese racism during World War II (1941-1945), including newspapers, especially the Nichi Bei; newspaper clippings; magazine articles; pamphlets; reports; and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings.