macOS Weird Java problem with escaped characters in system calls

String[] cmd = new String[] { "/usr/bin/open", // The command
                              "--wait-apps", // Block until the app is closed, optional
                              "/Applications/QuickTime Player.app"
                            };

/* Will not return until QuickTime exists because of the 
*   --wait-apps argument
*/
Process qt = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( cmd );

import java.io.*;

public class test {
  public static void main (String [] args)
  {
    try {
      String[] cmd = new String[] { "/usr/bin/open", // The command
                                    "--wait-apps", // Block until the app is closed
                                    "/Applications/QuickTime Player.app"
                                  };
                                  
      Process qt = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( cmd );
      
      if( qt == null ) {
        System.out.println( "Error while exec'ing command." );  
      } else {
        int result = -1;
        char[] buf = new char[256];
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        Reader isr = new InputStreamReader( qt.getErrorStream() );
        
        while( (result = isr.read(buf, 0, buf.length)) != -1 ) {
          sb.append( buf, 0, result );
        }
        
        if( sb.length() > 0 ) {
          System.out.println( "STDERR said:\n"+sb.toString() );
          System.out.println( "*********" );
        }
        
        
        /* Finished up with the STDERR output, now print the
        *   STDOUT
        */
        sb = new StringBuffer();
        isr = new InputStreamReader( qt.getInputStream() );
        while( (result = isr.read(buf, 0, buf.length)) != -1 ) {
          sb.append( buf, 0, result );
        }

        if( sb.length() > 0 ) {
          System.out.println( "STDOUT said:\n"+sb.toString() );
          System.out.println( "*********" );
        }
      }
    } catch( IOException ioe ) {
      System.out.println( "Exception: "+ioe );
    }
  }
}

public Process exec(String command, String[] envp, File dir)
        throws IOException {
        if (command.length() == 0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Empty command");

	StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(command);
	String[] cmdarray = new String[st.countTokens()];
 	for (int i = 0; st.hasMoreTokens(); i++)
	    cmdarray[i] = st.nextToken();
	return exec(cmdarray, envp, dir);
}