The Iwao Ishino papers contain both personal and professional materials. There is also a small of amount of material relating to Mary Kobayashi Ishino.

Personal materials include photographs of his family as well as school and U.S. Army entrance documents. Professional materials include memos, notes, correspondence, reports and publications relating to his career.

The collection files are arranged in roughly chronological order. Ishino had originally organized them chronologically. MSU Archives has maintained that arrangement as much as possible. Ishino had assembled the original documents together but often went back later and included notes and articles from a later time frame. Thus folders might contain early materials as well as later materials that Ishino included.

The subject files are grouped at the end and listed alphabetically. They contain material Ishino collected on Executive Order 9066, the internment of Japanese Americans, Japan, and Japanese Americans.

The collection also contains photos and slides of Ishino's family, school and army time, and work in Japan. The photos of Japan include both Ishino and his family as well as photos Ishino took of Japan both in his capacity as a researcher as well as tourist. The collection also includes lantern slides of New Mexico showing Native American people, housing and dwellings and landscapes. It is possibly Ishino used these during his work at the U.S. Bureau of Sociological Research with Alexander Leighton who was conducting research on the Navajo.

The collection also includes video tapes and dvds including home videos and productions on internment. There are also audio tapes of meetings, lectures and family.