Aw Boon Haw
During the Japanese Occupation, Tan and his colleagues organized a news service for Commonwealth prisoners of war at Sime Road camp and Changi Prison. After the war, the English-only policy for top positions at the Straits Times led Tan to join the Singapore edition of the Tiger Standard, the paper established by Aw Boon Haw. In 1950, a Standard-owned DC-3 airplane crash-landed in Thailand, paper's substantial profits, but Aw refused on account that his son was also a victim. As a result of this difference in opinion, Tan resigned from the paper.