We built an app using only JS for UI logic and it was smooth, after that I said to him, I will never touch the any of the server side stuff like JSP again. From that day, I have built every app using JS as the front end languadge. For a time people would look at me weird when I would advocate for it, but now as time has gone on, the mind-shift has happened.
I still find back-end developers who are resistant, but that resistance usually fades fast when they come to realize that a) they won't have to write the JS and b) They get to offload all UI development to a specialized front-end developer. That's usually when they become the biggest advocate. I cant tell you how many back-end developers that have said to me after doing a JS UI project, how happy they where not not have to deal with UI requirements and be able to focus on the business logic.