A series of nonequilibrium molecular dynamics(NEMD) simulations are performed to investigate the kinetic energy and velocity distributions of molecules in shock waves. In the simulations, argon molecules are used as a medium gas through which shock waves are propagating. The kinetic energy distribution profiles reveals that as a strong shock wave whose Mach number is 27.1 is applied, 39.6% of argon molecules inside the shock wave have larger kinetic energy than molecular ionization energy. This indicates that an application of a strong shock wave to argon gas can give rise to an intense light. The velocity distribution profiles in z direction along which shock waves propagate clearly represent two Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions of molecular velocities in two equilibrium regions and one bimodal velocity distribution profile that is attributed to a nonequilibrium region. The peak appearing in the directional temperature in z direction is discussed on a basis of the bimodal velocity distribution in the nonequilibrium region.