how good is JAva with Oracle, overall ?

[Edwin Davidson]

Hello friends:
I am assuming that PL/SQL is just the thing for using on big Oracle tables to manipulate/retrieve data from, etc. But, how good exactly is Java for doing the same kind of thing ? Is Java slower, as fast as or quicker than PL/SQL ?
I am not doubting Java's ability to actually do anything that PL/SQL can do. But I am wondering about Java's performance on opening, writing to, searching, etc. Oracle tables.
Has Java ever been stacked up against PL/SQL in a fomal test ? Is there some site somewhere where PL/SQL vs. Java has been benchmarked ?
Thanks.
Edwin