~(double byte tilda) not displayed properly with j2sdk1.4.1 on linux

I have a jsp page(on linux 7.3, Tomcat 4.1, j2sdk1.4.1/j2sdk1.4.2) displaying japanese message. The whole text is displayed correctly except ~ character which is displayed as ?.
This problem does not occur on jdk1.3.1. ~ is displayed correctly there.

Also i wanted to mention one more thing...I have a class called Messages which contains the message to be displayed on the jsp page. i display the message as follows
<%=Messages.mes%>. Here it displays the ~ as ? . But if i directly type my message in the jsp page there is no problem. Is there some kind of setting i need to do in j2sdk1.4.1
Please help!!