Java is a wierd situation. It started as a powerful force from Sun's marketing department. It was the first language I have ever seen break the popularity barrier without the usual decade of acadamia and research use. For that matter, Java got popular before it was even used by anyone. Guess that is what happens when product managers are allowed to pick implementation languages from the back of a magazine.
Java fixes a lot of the frustrations of C++, but doesn't go far enough in my opinion. They didn't take enough from Smalltalk, even though they took quite a bit from it.