Objective-C was strongly influenced by smalltalk. I think Java is more influenced by smalltalk than by Objective-C. The whole concept of compilation toward bytecode that may be interpreted or compiled to native is very similar to smalltalk. I think the influence of objective-C and C++ was mainly to avoid reproducing mistakes, in particular the tricky syntax. The syntax of smalltalk is very clean and simple which is not the case of C++ or objective-C.
Java the language is more like Simula than Smalltalk. But yes, the JVM/runtime is vaguely Smalltalkish, and this is no accident given that many of the key contributors came from Self and Smalltalk lineages.
